the art of retouching photographic negatives
DESCRIPTION
… and Practical Directions How to Finish and Color Photographic Enlargements by Robert Johnson, 1936TRANSCRIPT
THE VART OF RETOUCHINGPHOTOGRAPHIC NEGATIVES
AND PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS HOW TOFINISH AND COLOR PHOTOGRAPHIC
ENLARGEMENTS, ETC.\
BY ROBERT JOHNSON
Revised and Rewritten
BY T. S. BRUCE AND ALFRED BRAITHWAITE
THIRTEENTH EDITIONRevised and Enlarged
BY ARTHUR HAMMOND, A.R.P.S.
1936
AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHIC PUBLISHING CO.
BOSTON, MASS.
U.S.A.
COPYRIGHT, 1930, 1936, BY
AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHIC PUBLISHING Co.
Thirteenth (Second American) Edition
Revised with additions, 1936
Made and Printed in the United States of Americaby the Plimpton Press, Norwood, Massachusetts
PREFACEThe first edition of this book on the Art of Retouching
1
was published about twenty years ago and it ran
through many editions* It was revised and rewritten
by T. S. Bruce and Alfred Braithwaite, both well known
experts. Mr. Bruce was for a number of years a mostsuccessful teacher of retouching, conducting personalclasses in his own studios on Hampstead Heath, as well
as correspondence courses in all English speaking coun-
tries. He was the inventor and manufacturer of" Ne-
gafake"Erasing Pencils, which were very widely used.
Mr. Braithwaite ranks high among photographic fin-
ishers and is a competent teacher.
Changes in equipment and methods in recent -yearshave made it necessary to bring the book up to date andthis is what we have endeavoured to do in the presentedition. All of the old material in former editions has
been retained with the exception of references to meth-
ods and materials that are now no longer used. Bruce's"ISTegafake," for example, is no longer on the market,
but its place has been taken by other things such as
brushes of spun glass, and by various reducing pastes,
such as Eastman Abrasive Reducer. But the methods
of 1930 are much the same as those of 1910 as far as
pencil work and etching are concerned. There is as
much need for the use of common sense as well as man-ual skill in retouching now as there was then. There is
very little difference in the materials that are now used
for negative retouching, except that razor blades are
vi PREFACE
almost always used for etching instead of the regular
etching knives that were used and recommended by Mr.
Bruce.
In finishing and colouring photographic prints and en-
largements there have been some rather drastic changes.
The use of the airbrush has become almost universal
owing to its efficiency and speed. Modern methods of
colouring have also superseded those advocated by Mr.
Braithwaite. These modern methods have been fully
dealt with in the present edition, but all of the verysound advice as regards colouring and working up en-
largements given in the earlier editions by Mr. Braith-
waite has been retained and will be found to be very
helpful by those who are contemplating taking up such
work.
Merely reading the book will not make anyone a com-
petent retoucher or finisher. The instructions must be
actually carried out, for, as Messrs. Bruce and Braith-
waite have stated in their introduction,"they are use-
less without industry."
The present edition is considerably larger than anyprevious ones. Much new material has been added, as
well as a number of new illustrations, and we believe that
this book, which has long been regarded as a standard
work on retouching, will continue to hold its place andbe even more popular.
^7 suggestions that may be sent to the publishersas to the improvement of later editions will be welcome.
Boston, 1930
CONTENTS
PART I
NEGATIVE RETOUCHING
PREFACE v
INTRODUCTION vii
CHAPTER I What Is Retouching Why Retouching is
Necessary Soft-Focus Lenses Lighting Pos-sibilities of Retouching Advice as to Materials
Spotting Causes of Pinholes and Airbells Howto Spot a Negative Sharpening the Pencils
Cleaning the Pencil Abuse of Pencilling VariedPencil Points Applying the Medium Removalof Retouching 1
CHAPTER II Setting the Desk for Daylight WorkUse of Window Shades To Shut Out Side Light
Working by Artificial Light The Dimming Switch
Position at Desk Distance from the NegativeHolding the Pencil Knife and Abrasive Work
How to Hold the Knife Sharpening Knives
Negafake Work Abrasive Pastes Examples of
Knife and Abrasive Work Double WorkingPractice Negatives What to Look for WhatStroke to Use How to Avoid Eye Strain
Blending 18
CHAPTER III Modelling The Forehead WrinklesThe Cheek The Lips and Mouth The Nose
Eyes and Eyebrows The Chin The Ears TheShadow Cheek The Neck, Bust and Arms ... 39
CHAPTER IV What to Aim at Children's FacesBabies and Aged People Regarding Anatomy andLikeness Freckled Faces The Ordinary FaceThe Best Touch Direction of the Touch Me-chanical Devices for Retouching Construction
viii CONTENTS
Operation Etching Practice Work ReducingPaste 51
CHAPTER V Retouching Landscape and Architectural
Negatives Applying Ground-Glass Substitute
Working on the Back of the Negative Papier Min-eral The Air Brush Blocking-out NegativeVarnish Softening Edges Etching away the
Background Filling in Scratches on the NegativePhotographs of Animals Etching a Single
Figure from a Group Straightening Crossed Eyes 69
PART II
FINISHING AND COLOURING PHOTOGRAPHS
CHAPTER VI Materials for Water Colour PaintingWorking up Enlargements in Monochrome PowderWork Cloudy Backgrounds Vignetting Fix-
ing the Powder Brush Work The Hair, Eyes,etc. Cross Hatching Stippling The Scraper
General Remarks 103
CHAPTER VH The Use of the Air Brush Descriptionof the Air Brush Air Supply Position at theEasel Colours Preparing Colours Prelimi-
nary Practice The Principle of Air Brush WorkA Hint as to Roundness Use of Frisket PaperWorking up Portraits Working up LandscapePictures Cleaning the Air Brush 120
CHAPTER VIII Colouring Enlargements in WaterColour Colour Terms Explained The Kind ofPrint that is Best for Colouring Brush WashesMesh Tints The Eyes Shadows, etc., on theFace Colouring Hair Draperies 132
CHAPTER IX Finishing Prints in Oil Colours Char-acteristics of Colour The Russian Method of Ap-plying Oil Colours The Kind of Print for Colouring
Applying the Colours Portraits LandscapesWorking up Enlargements in Black and White
and Coloured Crayon 142
INTRODUCTION
We do not claim that the following chapters on the
subject of negative retouching and working up photo-
graphs in colours, monochrome, etc., will make an artist
or a retoucher of one who has had no experience in such
work, but we are certain that if they are carefully read
and the instructions are followed intelligently, a begin-
ner may become possessed in a very short time of a
knowledge of those rules which in the ordinary course
would take years of practice to acquire, and which go to
make up the sum of professional competency. In the
present instance they have been obtained in the best
photographic establishments in England and in the
finish of the finest specimens of photography in those
houses, so they may be safely followed by the novice or
the weak and defective professional in these branches
who has not had the same advantages for practice; but
they are useless without industry.
Nothing is easier than to say a piece of work is done
badly, but in order to do anything well, it is indis-
pensable that we work until, by constant struggling
with a difficulty, we eventually overcome it.
Now, in the first place, before attempting to learn re-
touching, colouring or finishing we would advise begin-
ners to make sure that they are physically adapted to
such work. If the eyes are not strong, it is a great mis-
take to have anything to do with retouching either as a
means of making a living or as a hobby. If you have
already taken it up and find that it injures the eyes,
ix
x INTRODUCTION
it would be wise to give it up, for no success that may be
attained with it will compensate for damaged eyesight.
Those who have defective hearing, or those of a nervous
temperament but possessing good sight, might find re-
touching and general photographic finishing a congenial
occupation, for the work is restful, the worker is not
under constant surveillance, and very little conversation
is needed.
The early editions of this book were illustrated with
eleven original pencil drawings but in later issues only
four of these were retained. These drawings (Plates
VIII to XI) were used because they offer more valu-
able information to the finisher than could be obtained
from reproductions of photographs from life. The pen-
cil marks indicate the correct direction of the grain or
texture and they serve as examples for monochrome
and colour finishing as well as for negative retouching.
If similar studies in lighting were made from ordinary
photographs taken from life, the direction of the re-
touching would not show at all in the halftone reproduc-
tions. In retouching negatives the pencil strokes must
never be made on the same scale or with the strength dis-
played by the illustrations, for that would be entirely
wrong, but the work should be done in the general di-
rection of the pencil strokes seen in the reproductions.
The"touch
"on the negative must be of the lightest
possible character and often microscopic in the case of
small faces, etc*
T. S. BRUCEALFRED BEAITHWAITE
London,, 1913,
PART I
RETOUCHING
CHAPTER I
What is Retouching Why Retouching is Necessary Soft-Focus
Lenses Lighting Possibilities of Retouching Advice as to
Materials Spotting Causes of Pinholes and Airbells Howto Spot a Negative Sharpening the Pencils Cleaning the Pen-
cil Abuse of Pencilling Varied Pencil Points Applying the
Medium Removal of Retouching.
WHAT is RETOUCHING
Adding density to a negative by working on the nega-tive with a finely pointed lead pencil, or removing den-
sity from the negative by rubbing with an abrasive
mixture or by shaving down the film with a sharp knife,
is usually termed retouching, and portrait photogra-
phers, since the introduction of the dry plate, have
developed and practised such methods of improvingtheir negatives till retouching has become a necessary
part of the production of an acceptable portrait.
The methods used in retouching have been modified
and improved from time to time and new materials have
been introduced, but the operation still remains very
much the same as in the days when the dry plate was
first used in photography.Shadows on a negative are more or less transparent,
and therefore shadows, such as lines and wrinkles on the
face, can be built up and either partly or entirely re-
moved by adding density to the negative in those parts.
At first such work as this was done with a brush and
colour on each individual print, but this was too labori-
2 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
ous, and it was not very long before the idea of modifyingthe negative was tried out and found to be entirely prac-
tical. India ink and water colour were used with a fine
brush on the negative, but later it was found that the
work could be done far more easily and more satisfac-
torily with a lead pencil. It is necessary to preparethe surface of the film by applying a resinous medium,to give sufficient
"tooth
"to make the use of a pencil
practical. This used to be done by rubbing the film with
finely powdered pumice, but now a retouching medium,or
"dope
"as it is called, is always used.
Except for the fact that at the present time remov-
able leads are used in a lead-holder instead of the usual
cedar-covered pencils, the pencils used for retouchingare exactly the same as those used for any other purposeto which a pencil is applied. As the retoucher has to use
a long, fine point, the adjustable holder is more con-
venient because it can be used to protect the lead whenthe pencil is not in use.
Retouching in its simplest form is simply the applica-tion of lead to the surface of a negative in those partswhich are not sufficiently dense and which therefore
would appear too dark in a print made from that nega-tive. It will be found to be a comparatively simple mat-ter to work over those transparent parts with a finely
pointed pencil until they are gradually built up and
strengthened under the application of the lead so that
they blend, more or less imperceptibly, into the sur-
rounding parts, and are therefore partially or entirelyeliminated.
The opposite effect, namely the removal of densityfrom the negative to make certain parts appear darkerin the print, is done by gently scraping the surface of the
WHY RETOUCHING IS NECESSARY 3
film with a very sharp knife so that some of the silver
deposit is actually shaved off. All kinds of knives have
been recommended for this, but most of the practical re-
touchers of today use a safety-razor blade, or part of a
blade, in preference to any other type of knife. There
are also certain abrasive mixtures, usually in the form
of a paste, which can be applied with a tuft of cotton or
with a cloth stretched over the finger tip. For some
purposes this method of reducing is better than usinga knife. Both knife and paste are used by practical
retouchers throughout the world.
It will be seen, therefore, that these are entirely prac-tical means of adding or removing density and it is only
necessary for the requisite skill to be developed by prac-
tice, so that the modifications of the negative will not be
visible on the print.
WHY RETOUCHING is NECESSARY
There are certain defects, inherent to the photo-
graphic process, that make it difficult or impossible for
a photographer to get in the print just what is desired.
It is well known that certain colours are apt to appearin a photograph as lighter or darker in tone than they
appear to the eye. Colours at the red end of the spec-
trum are reproduced too dark, and blue too light. This
can be corrected by the use of panchromatic emulsions
and suitable colour filters, but it is not always practical
to use such methods in the studio and so the necessary
modifications are effected by means of retouching.
Sometimes there are patches of uneven pigmentationon the skin that are not apparent to the eye, or there are
freckles or other slight blemishes that should be subdued
or eliminated in order to improve the portrait. These are
4 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
more or less transparent on the negative and can very
easily be built up by the careful application of pencil
work.
The photographic lens is an instrument of great pre-
cision, but it does not discriminate between the essential
and the unessential, and so when the lens is used in such
a way as to give clear definition of detail where it is
wanted, there is often equally clear definition of detail
where it is not wanted. The lens does not create lines
and wrinkles and blemishes on the face, but it merely
reproduces them when they are there and makes these
unimportant details just as prominent as the importantones. Therefore it is sometimes necessary to subdue
such imperfections or to remove them entirely by means
of the knife or the pencil.
SOFT-FOCUS LENSES
Many photographers use lenses that are so designedthat they do not give critically sharp definition, andwhen used intelligently and skilfully, such lenses often
impart a very charming quality, but still, the lens is
impartial, and by softening the definition where it is
desirable to do so, we soften it also where it is not de-
sirable and so we often lose more than we gain.
LIGHTING
Sometimes the lighting that is used is such as to em-
phasize certain lines on the face and sometimes high-
lights are introduced where they should not be, so that
some retouching is called for to correct these mistakes.
Sometimes there is a frown or a slight scowl on the face
of the sitter which causes certain lines on the face to be
unduly pronounced. By softening or removing such
POSSIBILITIES OF RETOUCHING 5
lines, the expression can be very much improved with-
out spoiling the likeness.
POSSIBILITIES OF RETOUCHING
A very skilful retoucher can make drastic changes in
a face, such as closing a mouth that is opened too far so
that the teeth are showing, straightening eyes that are
slightly crossed or even putting into the negative eyeswhich may have been closed while the exposure wasmade. Such things as these demand great skill and
should not be attempted until the worker is really ex-
pert in the use of his tools, but it is quite possible to do
such things and make the results appear entirely natural
in the print.
The comparatively slight amount of retouching that
is usually called for in a well-lighted and properly ex-
posed portrait is by no means difficult to do, and anyonewho possesses a certain amount of manual dexterity as
well as good eyesight can become in a comparativelyshort time sufficiently expert to do simple retouching.
Even if nothing more is done to a negative than to re-
move the obvious defects and to subdue too prominent
lines, that negative will be very much improved and will
yield a far more pleasing print than if it were not re-
touched at all. In professional studios, a good deal
more than this is done however; the entire face is blended
and modelled so that there are no harsh lines or deepshadows. A clever retoucher can do this without destroy-
ing the likeness. The general public often demands a
good deal of retouching in portraits, but it should never
be overdone or carried so far that all the character and
expression in the face are lost. The experienced re-
toucher will do more with a few strokes of the pencil than
6 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
the unintelligent worker could do in an hour, for retouch-
ing is a branch of photography in which experience
counts for much.
The beginner in retouching must first of all make
himself familiar with the appearance of a negative and
must get used to the reversal of the lights and darks.
When we speak of highlights on a negative, we mean
the densest parts of it, the parts that appear lightest in
a print, and of course shadows on a negative are the
more or less transparent parts through which the light
can penetrate in printing so that those parts appeardark in the print. It takes a little practice to discrimi-
nate between the shadows that are blemishes, such as
freckles, etc., and those that are a necessary part of the
modelling of the face. There must be a certain amount
of shadow in order to give a suggestion of roundness
and solidity and to indicate the shape of the features.
A little actual work on a few negatives will soon enable
the beginner to tell the difference between the shadows
that should be removed and those that should not be
touched and so, at this time, we will proceed to give the
beginner some idea of his tools*
ADVICE AS TO MATERIALS
After having made sure that you are physically suited
for retouching, proceed to get the implements that are
required. These are not expensive and it is always ad-
visable to get the best. Although it is possible to use
ordinary cedar pencils, it will be far better for the be-
ginner to buy one or two of the lead-holders specially
intended for retouching, and an assortment of loose
leads of varying degrees of hardness. The different
makers have different ways of indicating hard and soft
ADVICE AS TO MATERIALS 7
leads. Some of the leads are numbered, Xo. 1 being the
softest and Xo. 6 extra hard. Other makers indicate the
quality of the leads by the letters B (black) and H(hard), the Xo. 1 lead being marked BB or BBB, Xo.
2, B or BB, Xo. 3, HB (hard and black, the degree of
hardness that is generally most useful for average
work) Xo. 4, H or HH, Xo. 5 HH or HHH and Xo.
6 HHH or HHHH, and so on. The worker must
have two or three pencils of different degrees of hard-
ness for use on different kinds of negatives or on differ-
ent parts of the same negative. On a thin negative,
where only a very slight amount of pencil work is needed,
a fairly hard pencil should be used, while, on a denser
negative or on parts where a heavier deposit of lead
is called for, a soft pencil must be used or it will be im-
possible to apply sufficient lead. This is largely a mat-
ter of practice and the worker will very soon acquire the
ability to decide which grade of lead is best suited to
different parts of the negative.
It is possible to make the retouching medium or
"dope" that is applied to the negative to provide a"tooth
"for the pencil work, but it will be found far
more satisfactory and just as economical to buy this
ready prepared. Besides the pencils and retouching"dope," the following articles should also be obtained:
Retouching desk or easel
Reading glass or magnifying glass
Etching knife or a few razor blades
Small spotting brush
Assortment of spotting-colours, sepia, black and white
Small can of abrasive paste
Glass paper block for sharpening pencils
8 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
Bottle of" Ground Glass Substitute
"
Some old, soft handkerchiefs for applying the dope to
the negatives
Some negatives to practise on (which possibly could
be obtained from a friendly local photographer )
It is not at all difficult for anyone who is handy with
tools to make a thoroughly practical and efficient re-
touching desk. As a matter of fact, a"sugar box
"
with the top and bottom removed and a board put in
diagonally at an angle of about 60 degrees, to act as
a support for the negative, will do very well. An open-
ing must be cut in this board through which the light
can be transmitted. A second-hand radio cabinet of the
old style with sloping front can easily be adapted to
this use. An adjustable and folding retouching desk
can be purchased for a few dollars and if much workis to be done, it will be found to be well worth while
to invest a little money in a reliable outfit. Do not geta desk that is too small. A large desk is well worth its
extra cost in the added comfort and convenience.
The reading glass should not be used all the time, but
it will be found very handy for extra fine work and for
the final smoothing up of the work.
Although there are many good knives on the marketthat are specially designed and manufactured for re-
touching, most of the practical retouchers of today use
a safety-razor blade, preferably one with a rounded cor-
ner rather than a sharp corner. Very often the practi-cal retoucher either breaks a blade in two so that he has
one sharp corner and one rounded one, or he uses differ-
ent makes of blades. This gives a choice of blades whichare used according to the kind of work that is needed.
SPOTTING 9
The spotting-colours and brush are used for spottingout pinholes and similar defects in the negative that are
too big to be easily remedied with the pencil. Thereis a knack in spotting that can very easily be learned.
SPOTTIXG
Transparent spots on a negative, though they are
usually caused by carelessness, cannot always be avoided.
They are sometimes caused by dust particles on the
film which keep the light off the film when the exposureis made and therefore when the negative is developedthere are transparent spots where there was no light
action. Such spots as these are known as pinholes and
they can be avoided by making sure that the plate or
film is free from dust. The use of a brush for dusting
plates or films when they are loaded into the holders is
not advised. Plates and films are very carefully packedand elaborate precautions are taken at the factory to
avoid dust, so there is not likely to be any dust on the
film when it is taken from the box in which it was packed,but a brush that is kept in the darkroom, possibly lyingon a dusty bench, is likely to be full of dust and the use
of such a brush would be very apt to put more dust on
the film than it removes. In loading glass plates into
the holders, it is a good plan to give the edge of each
plate a slight tap on the bench before putting it into the
holder. That will dislodge any dust particles there maybe on the plate. If films are used, tap the back of each
one with the finger nail before loading into the holder.
Another reason why a brush should not be used is
that the friction of the brush on the plate or film tends
to electrify the surface a little, so that any dust that is
in the atmosphere is attracted to the plate and adheres
10 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
to its surface. So do not use a brush for dusting plates
or films, but take special care to keep the inside of the
camera and the holders as free from dust as possible.
CAUSES or PINHOLES AND AIRBELLS
Plates and films are apt to get dusty if they are left
for some time in the holders and are carried around a
good deal in an auto or other conveyance. It is a good
plan to dust the inside of the camera and the inside of
the holders occasionally with a slightly damp cloth or
one that has been very slightly moistened with just a
trace of glycerine. This should be done after the camera
has been carried on a long trip in a train or auto, espe-
cially in dry weather when the roads are dusty. It is
also well to avoid leaving the plates or films in the hold-
ers for a long time before they are used.
Defects of another kind will sometimes be found on
negatives. They are usually larger than pinholes and
are almost always circular in shape as they are caused
by airbells adhering to the film during development.Carelessness in pouring on the developing solution is
usually the cause of airbells. The developer does not
reach the spot covered with the air and therefore that
spot is not developed and will fix out in the hypo as a
round, transparent hole. If the films or plates are de-
veloped in a tray, airbells can be avoided by passing a
wad of cotton, or the tip of the finger, very lightly
over the entire surface of the film immediately after it
has been immersed in the developer.
How TO SPOT A NEGATIVE
Such spots as these, if they should occur, are best
spotted out with a fine brush and either opaque colour or
HOW TO SPOT A NEGATIVE 11
india ink. The colour should not be applied too wet or
it will only form a ring around the transparent spot andmake matters worse. The usual method is to take a little
of the colour or india ink on the thumb nail and allow it
to dry. The brush should then be very slightly mois-
tened with the lips and a very little of the paint taken
up on the extreme point of the brush. Then apply the
tip of the brush to the spot on the negative, being verycareful to place the tip of the brush as nearly in the exact
centre of the hole as possible, and if the pinhole is a small
one, it will be removed with one touch of the brush. If it
is a large hole, two or three such touches may be neces-
sary, but be careful to avoid putting on the colour too
thick. Try to apply the colour so that the pinhole or air-
bell will match its surroundings and so blend into the
negative that it will not show at all in the print. If the
pinhole is in a dense part of the negative, such as the
sky in a landscape picture, it will need a heavier applica-
tion of colour than if it is in a more transparent part of
the negative. If the pinhole is in a part of the negative
that is more or less transparent, it would be better to re-
touch it very lightly with a hard retouching pencil in-
stead of using paint and a brush. If the paint is applied
too heavily, the spotting will show as a light spot in the
print and will entail some spotting on each print to re-
move it. The knack of spotting such defects in nega-
tives is one that can be acquired very easily with a little
practice. A very convenient assortment of spotting-
colours in the form of a series of celluloid sheets coated
with dry colours, black, white, and red, can be purchased
very cheaply at any photographic stock house.
The glass paper block for sharpening pencils can be
bought of almost any artists' supply store or photo-
12 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
graphic dealer. It is a piece of wood about an inch anda half wide and six inches long, to which are attached
several pieces of fine glass paper, one on the top of the
other. When one piece is worn out, it can be removedand a fresh piece exposed for use.
SHARPENING THE PENCILS
As a great deal depends upon the sharpening of the
pencils and the preservation of the point, it may be ad-
visable to give full directions to achieve those ends. Thelead should be let out about an inch and a quarter fromthe screw-cap of the pencil holder and then this securely
tightened. The pencil is then lifted from the table be-
tween the thumb and second finger of the right hand,which makes the butt end of the holder protrude just be-
yond the side of the hand below the little finger, the pen-cil holder thus crossing the palm of the hand, with the
little and third fingers bent under the holder and lightly
supporting it while the weight of the first finger tip is
resting on the extreme unsharpened point of the lead.
Hold the sharpening block in the left hand or place it
just on the edge of the table and bring the pencil downon it at an angle of about forty-five degrees, resting thelead perfectly flat across the glass paper. Then passthe lead across the surface of the glass paper with abold and steady motion from right to left, at the sametime rotating the holder continuously between the sec-
ond finger and the thumb. This double movement re-
quires some practice, but by doing it slowly at first, it
will soon be mastered. The tip of the first finger shouldrest lightly on the end of the lead until it begins to findits point through the light pressure and then the tip ofthe finger should be gradually drawn down towards the
CLEANING THE PENCIL 13
screw-cap of the holder until the pencil is finely sharp-ened to a taper point, not bulging in the centre, then
suddenly slanting off, but a true gradation from the
screw-cap to the delicate tip, as shown in Fig. 1, No. 1.
The pencil must always be kept in this condition and if
little pieces break off, as they are apt to do with the be-
ginner, and with irritating frequency, then loosen the
screw-cap, let out the lead a trifle, screw up again and re-
peat the sharpening process as described and so renew
the point. Keep the point always the same length and
be very careful to protect the points of the pencils when
they are not in use.
CLEANING THE PENCIL
After sharpening, many retouchers remove the fine
dust clinging to the pencil by drawing it through a soft
cloth. Some use a piece of blotting paper or soft wrap-
ping paper, passing the lead over the paper in the same
way as it was rubbed on the glass paper block, but the
best method of removing dust from the newly sharpened
pencil is to rotate it over the soft flesh between the thumb
and the first finger of the left hand while drawing it
over and away from that part. This certainly dirties
the hand, but then, so does the sharpening, but the
proper pursuit of the art comes before all such slight
considerations. Retouchers get into a very smudgystate at times and the nature of the work makes it
unavoidable.
The lead must be cleaned after sharpening, because
there is usually a speck or two at the point which would
be deposited on the negative directly the pencil is
brought to its surface. This would make a speck on the
negative that would have to be removed either with a
14 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
knife or with the wooden end of a small paint brush han-
dle covered with a soft rag and lightly touched with re-
touching medium. This should be just flirted over the
surface and it will usually remove the speck of dust at
once, but it may be necessary to rub the medium downon the negative.
First attempts at sharpening the leads generally re-
sult in many breakages, and the novice thinks he has
taken up an expensive hobby. The tip of the first finger
resting on the point of the lead when being sharpened
prevents much of this wastage, but undue weight from
the wrist must always be guarded against. To attain
the correct rotary movement of the pencil between the
finger and the thumb, the beginner can practice on the
back of a piece of glass paper, or on any smooth paper,until the knack of performing the double movement is
acquired. Then, when confident that the right action
has been attained, the complete operation can take
place.
Careful attention to the sharpening and treatment of
the pencils will remove many of the initial difficulties
that beset the path of the beginner, hence the necessityfor these somewhat detailed directions.
ABUSE OF PENCILLING
While you must keep a long, sharp point on your
pencil, you can use a more stumpy point for strengthen-
ing highlights on drapery, but here is something that
should be avoided: it often happens that it is difficult
to strengthen the highlights on a figure owing to the
drapery being of soft material, but in the picture there
may be certain accessories, such as chairs, screens, vases,
books, etc., which catch the light ; and because it is easy
- X
16 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
to do so, some retouchers strengthen these highlights
wherever they can, so that the figure appears to be lost
in a number of brilliant accessories, just as some indif-
ferent pianists, when they are accompanying a solo,
hammer away at the instrument as if the accompani-
ment constituted the leading motive of the music. Donot let your zeal for retouching carry you to this ex-
treme; within its proper limits, retouching can be a vast
improvement to a photograph beyond that it is an
obtrusive absurdity.
VAEEED PENCIL POINTS
Fig. 1, No. 1, shows the proper working point of a
No. 3 Hardtmuth lead (a favourite professional pencil)
! to Ij inches in length: No. 2 shows the point of a
No. 3B pencil, about 1 inch in length, used for strength-
ening the highlights on drapery, etc. ; and No. 3 shows
a chisel-pointed 6B pencil, the softest pencil made, used
for putting in broad highlights.
The desk and the pencils being ready, nothing remains
but to apply the retouching medium to the negative
and then, in the correct position and with the right move-
ment, to commence work.
APPLYING THE MEDIUM
Whatever retouching medium is used, and there are
many varieties on the market, it will be found that direc-
tions as to their use are usually given with them.
In applying the medium to the film and this ap-
plies to all makes the main thing to avoid is havingthe medium too thick so that it leaves the film in a sticky
condition, more fit for catching flies than for retouching.
The first finger of the right hand should be covered
APPLYING THE MEDIUM 17
smoothly with a piece of soft rag, such as an old and well
washed handkerchief. Tip the bottle so that the me-
dium touches the cork and then withdraw the cork and
apply the medium that is adhering to the cork to the
cloth on the finger tip. This should then be rubbed
firmly over the part of the negative that is to be re-
touched, rubbing with a little pressure and in a series
of circles cutting one another. The medium should be
applied to the parts that need to be retouched and the
edges should be softened off, so that there is no abrupt
edge where the medium stops, as this might show in a
print. The negative should be placed on a level surface
while the medium is being rubbed on and if it is a glass
plate, some care must be taken to avoid breakage.
Do not apply too much medium. Rub it down
smoothly. Use only a very little and then rub it well
in, as if you were trying to rub it off.
REMOVAL or RETOUCHING
Unsatisfactory attempts at retouching may be re-
moved with the finger rag slightly moistened with spirits
of turpentine (the best), and then the negative is re-
mediumized with the regular retouching medium for an-
other trial. There is no need to remove all the work,
unless all of it is unsatisfactory, but only the part that
has to be done over.
Retouching can also be removed with the medium
itself. A second application of retouching medium
right over the part that has been worked on will remove
the old retouching and prepare the surface of the nega-
tive for another attempt.
CHAPTER II
Setting the Desk for Daylight Work Use of Window Shades
To Shut Out Side Light Working by Artificial Light The
Dimming Switch Position at Desk Distance from the Negative
Holding the Pencil Knife and Abrasive Work How to
Hold the Knife Sharpening Knives - Negafake Work Abra-sive Pastes Example of Knife and Abrasive Work Double
Working Practice Negatives What to Look for WhatStroke to Use How to Avoid Eye Strain Blending.
SETTING THE DESK FOE DAYLIGHT WORKAnd now let us suppose that you are ready to com-
mence work. Choose a north light if possible, as it is theleast variable, or, failing that, a north-east light, but
always avoid sunlight. Use a strong and solid, straight-
edged table, such as an ordinary kitchen table, placingit close up against the wall just below the window, sothat it is firm and unshakable.
Set the desk right up to the edge of the table and donot allow any ledge on which to rest the elbow, for if youdo that you will retard the free action of the pencil all
the time. Allow sufficient room on the table at the rightof the desk for all your materials, extra pencils, knives,brushes, spotting-colours, and so on.
Open the retouching desk with the carrier or otherdevice that holds the negative at an angle of about 60degrees, for to have too great a slant compels the re-toucher to lean over the work more than is necessary,which is bad for the health and is a very tiring position.
USE OF WINDOW SHADES 19
It is advisable to have a really first class desk and one
that is a fairly good size. It should be large enough to
take a negative 11 by 14 inches in size. A good, largedesk is a real comfort to work at and it well repays the
initial expense, for after a proper outfit has been ac-
quired, the cost of retouching is very little, for the pen-
cils, medium and other things will last a long time.
Therefore if much work is to be done, a good, roomy,well made desk will be a good investment.
Many desks are fitted with a mirror to reflect the
light through the negative, but this should be used onlywhen the light is very poor. To work with too stronga light is detrimental to the eyesight and fatal to goodresults. From practical experience it has been found
that white blotting paper is about the best material to
use as a reflector. It throws a good, even light throughthe negative and there is no glare. There should be a
piece of opal glass or fine ground glass fitted behind the
opening in the desk, on which the negative is placed, and
then the white blotting paper should be laid below the
ground or opal glass in such a position that it throws
an even, diffused light through the negative.
USE OF WINTBOW SHADES
You will find that you can easily regulate the amount
of the light that falls on the reflector and so make it
suit exactly the density of the negative you have to work
on, by raising and lowering the window shade. If youhave the cord within easy reach, you can raise or lower
the shade when it is necessary to do so without leaving
your seat. If you have to work at a window on the
sunny side of the house, you can diffuse the light by us-
ing a white shade, preferably one that is so arranged
20 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
that it can be pulled up from the bottom of the window,
with a dark shade also that can be pulled down from
the top.
A soft, reflected light must always be used, one that
is not too strong to obliterate the delicate gradations in
the negative, but strong enough to show all the detail
clearly. If the light is too strong it will be impossible
to do good work, but a light that is not strong enoughwill be apt to strain the eyes. This is a point that should
be carefully observed. You will soon get into the habit
of adjusting the window shade so that you will get the
best possible light.
To SHUT OUT SIDE LIGHT
Some workers tack pieces of brown paper along each
side of the top of the desk and then down each side of
the carrier frame, but a better plan is to use a piece of
heavy cardboard or thin wood about two or three inches
wider than the top of the desk. Side curtains can be at-
tached to this and it can be laid on the top of the desk
with a strip of wood in front to keep it from slipping
down. In this way you can block out all the side light
and the whole thing can be lifted off easily when it is
not needed.
WOKKING BY ARTIFICIAL LIGHT
A great many professional retouchers use only arti-
ficial light for retouching. It has the advantage of be-
ing always uniform. Electric light is now so universally
obtainable that it will be rare indeed when any other
form of artificial light will have to be used.
An oil lamp, used with the addition of a jeweller's
globe filled with water tinted blue-green, makes a good
THE DIMMING SWITCH 21
substitute for electric light and provides a very pleasant
light to work by in the event of electric light being unob-
tainable, but as the majority of our readers will no doubtbe in a position to use electric light, we will give somedetails as to its most effective use for retouching.
Probably the most convenient method is to use a
goose-neck desk lamp and place it so that the lightshines down on to the white blotting paper reflector pre-
viously described, so that only reflected light is used to
pass through the negative, not direct light. The inten-
sity of the illumination can easily be controlled by vary-
ing the distance between the electric lamp and the re-
flector. The nearer it is placed to the reflector, the
stronger will be the light. Some workers use direct
light diffused with two pieces of opal or ground glass,
but we have found, from actual experience, that the
reflected light gives a more even illumination that can
very easily be regulated.
THE DIMMING SWITCH
A "dimming switch
"by means of which the strength
of the light can be varied is a great convenience if nega-tives of widely varying density have to be retouched.
Such a switch can be obtained at any electric supplyhouse.
If an exceptionally dense negative is being worked
on, too dense to allow the light to properly penetrate
even when the light is brought fairly close to the re-
flector, one of the ground glass diffusers can be removed,
or even, in extreme cases, both of them. Such exception-
ally dense negatives should be avoided whenever it is
possible to do so, as they are not at all easy to retouch.
For the average negative, of average density, an ordi-
22 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
nary 50-watt lamp can be used and the light will be just
about right with one opal or two ground glass diffusers
and the blotting paper reflector. The light can be in-
creased a little, if necessary, by raising the blotting
paper reflector, so that it is a little nearer to the negative,
as shown in Plate I.
If an exceptionally thin negative is being worked on,
it may be necessary to use an additional opal diffuser
between the negative and the light. This will add den-
sity and show the delicate detail more clearly.
POSITION AT DESK
The illustrations, Plate I and Plate II, show side
views of the retoucher sitting at the desk for both dayand night work. This is the position that should alwaysbe adopted. Plate III shows the desk fitted with a side
cloth to shut out all the side-light, prepared and maderemovable as above described.
The position adopted when retouching is of the ut-
most importance if the work is to be carried on for manyhours, as in the case of professional retouchers, and
even if only for a short period it is better to be in com-
fort than not. Sit in an upright chair with a cushion at
your back for ease combined with solidity of position
(see Plate I), and then, placing your hands under the
seat of the chair, lift or jump yourself forward so that
your legs are well under the table and your body just
lightly touching the edge of it. You will then be sitting
erect all the time you are at work, and your back beingso well supported by the cushion, you can work for hours
at a time without suffering the slightest fatigue. If youdo not get well up to the table, then you are temptedto lean over, and the whole time you are retouching you
DISTANCE FROM THE NEGATIVE 23
are in a strained and uncomfortable position that is posi-
tively bad for the health.
DISTANCE FROM THE XEGATITE
You should look down upon the face to be retouched,
and the distance your eyes should be from the work de-
pends entirely upon your own particular vision. Some
retouchers have to peer closely into the negative, others
can see better when they keep away some considerable
distance. The ordinary reading range is usually about
right for retouching, and the larger the head you are
working, the farther away you can keep from it. It is
usually best to keep well away from the work and not
look too closely at it except, possibly, for working on
very fine detail. By keeping away from the work youwill find it much easier to attain breadth and smoothness.
If you are using a desk in which there are openings of
different sizes to accommodate different sized negatives,
you will find it is best to use a mask of black or heavy
brown paper with a small oval opening, about two inches
by three, cut in it and laid over the negative, exposing
only the part to be worked on through the small open-
ing. This will not only serve to protect the negative
from possible injury through contact with the hand, but
it will also rest the eyes and keep the light that is passing
through the negative from being so strong and dazzling
as to obliterate delicate gradations and detail.
HOLDING THE PENCIL
The pencil should be held naturally, in much the same
way as you would hold it for writing, with the fingers
near the screw cap of the holder and not too far away
from the point. The pencil must be held very lightly.
24 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
Work on the side of the point rather than the extreme
tip with about as much slant to the pencil as in ordinary
writing. If you use the extreme tip of the point and
work with the pencil too much upright, the result will be
apt to be scratchy and the work will be slow.
KNIFE AND ABRASIVE WORK
In the retouching of all negatives, knife work or anyreduction of density by means of abrasive methods
should always be done first if anything of the sort has to
be done. The film must be absolutely dry before anywork on it with a knife is attempted. In damp weather
it may be necessary to warm the negative over a stove
or radiator to be sure that it is entirely free from mois-
ture.
Pencil work follows the knife work and sometimes it
is necessary to touch up the knife work a little with the
pencil after the negative has been"doped." Then, if
there is any spotting to be done or any work with a
brush, that should come next.
It will be found that the majority of negatives need
only pencil work and on many of them only a very little
work of any kind. Knife work should never be done
just for the sake of experimenting, but should be used
judiciously and only when it is really needed. If the
developing, fixing and washing of the negative have
been done carefully there should be very little need for
spotting.
There are a good many varieties of high grade etch-
ing knives on the market and all of them are good andare capable of giving excellent results when used skil-
fully and intelligently. Fig. 2 shows eight typical
etching knives, all of which have their special uses. No.
26 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
3 is made to fit into the ordinary lead-holder and is a
very handy little accessory. Although there are a great
many retouchers who prefer to use knives like those
illustrated, many of the present day practical workers
find that a safety-razor blade is just as effective and in
some respects is better than a knife because, when new,it is really sharp and because it is possible to do with a
razor blade everything that can be done with a knife,
from the etching of a fine line to the entire removal of
the background.
How TO HOLD THE KNIFE
Most of the knives illustrated would be held in muchthe same way as you would hold a pen or a pencil and the
edge of the blade should be nearly at right angles to the
surface of the film. As each retoucher, in time, acquireshis own "
touch"with the pencil, so he will get into
different ways of holding and using the knives effec-
tively. Slavish copying of another's methods, either
from ocular demonstration or through the medium of
books, is not at all desirable. The art student at first
imitates the technique and colour schemes of the different
masters in the great galleries of the world, but graduallybreaks away and finds his own inspiration and goalif not, he remains a copyist only. So, in retouching, the
student should try to be original; he should try different
methods and then select the ones that he finds are best
suited to him.
Some of these knives can be used more effectively if
they are held with the handle passing right under the
palm of the hand and the blade held between the thumband the first and second fingers. They may be held in
such a way that the soft edge of the thumb and the tip
SHARPENING KNIVES 27
of the first finger are actually touching the surface of
the film when the sharp edge of the knife is used in verymuch the same way as a carpenter's plane, scraping
gently and evenly, a very little at a time, on the partof the film that is to be reduced in density. It will be
found that the worker has considerable control over the
knife when it is held in this way.This is the way, too, in which a razor blade should be
held, if a blade is used instead of a retouching knife. Or,
perhaps, it would be better to say that this is the waythe present writer has found to be the most effective
after many years of such work with razor blades of all
kinds. Other workers may find other ways more suit-
able, and if so, each one should work in the way that he
finds is best.
SHABPEXING KNIVES
Needless to say, good work can be done only with a
knife that is absolutely sharp, and so it will be neces-
sary either to sharpen the knives yourself or to have
them sharpened frequently by one who really knows how
to do it. A carborundum stone is usually found to be
the best for obtaining the very keen edge that is needed
on these knives. The stone should be oiled with a few
drops of machine oil and the knife should be held be-
tween the thumb and first and second fingers, with the
handle under the palm of the hand and with the blade
flat on the surface of the stone. The blade should then
be passed lightly but firmly over the stone in sweeping,
curved strokes from heel to point and "against the
edge" from left to right. Then turn the blade so that
the other side of the edge is on the stone.
To sharpen a knife properly is a job for an expert.
28 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
Many people find it difficult to do a really satisfactory
job. The use of razor blades instead of regular retouch-
ing knives will do away with all need for sharpening be-
cause, when the razor blade gets too dull, it is easy
enough to replace it with a new one. But for such workas the average retoucher will need, it will be found that
a razor blade will hold its edge for a very long time.
There are on the market a number of holders for razor
blades and for those who prefer a knife with a handle,one of these holders will be found very handy. The
photographer has to a slight extent solved the problemof what to do with old razor blades, for even a blade that
is no longer keen enough to be used for shaving can be
used for a wide variety of photographic purposes besides
negative etching.
"IXTEGAFAKE
" WOBKThe "
Negafake Erasing Pencil"invented and put
on the market by Mr. T. S. Bruce of London was a
great boon to photographers who found some difficulty
in using a knife successfully. This consisted of a squarestick of an abrasive material which could be sharpenedwith a knife to a rather blunt and rounded point, which
was used to rub down the film where it was too dense.
The pencils were made in two degrees of hardness andwere used with a lubricating medium. Even when usedwith some force, the pencils would never scratch the
negative, but just rubbed away the density gently and
gradually until the film had been sufficiently reduced.
Unfortunately, since Mr. Bruce's death,"Negafake
"
pencils are not being made and are no longer obtainable,but any reader of this book who is interested might like
to experiment along these lines and make up a similar
EXAMPLE OF KNIFE AND ABRASIVE WORK 29
article. The pencil was presumably made up of an
extremely fine abrasive, such as carborundum powderin a fine state of precipitation, thoroughly stirred into
melted paraffin wax and then poured into moulds. Asuitable mould might be made by wrapping stiff pa-
per around a pencil and then, after closing up one
end, pouring in the melted paraffin and carborundum
powder.
ABRASIVE PASTES
There are abrasive mixtures to be had, such as East-
man Abrasive Medium, which is in the form of a thick
paste which probably consists of a fine abrasive powdermixed with a heavy grease. They are used to reduce
the negative by friction. They may be applied by means
of a piece of cloth wrapped around the finger tip, or bymeans of a wad of cotton. They are particularly useful
for fairly large areas that need to be reduced in density
and, when used on a small wad of cotton wrappedaround the end of a small stick, can be used effectively
for reducing small highlights that may be too promi-
nent, such as are sometimes found on the breastbones
of ladies in evening dress, or for introducing halftones
and shadows where they may be needed. Even the ex-
pert user of the knife can find many occasions where
such a method of reducing is preferable to a blade.
EXAMPLE OF KNIFE AOT> AB&ASIVE WOEK
Plates IV andV show an example of what can be done
with the knife and other methods of reducing. This
negative was taken and made for"alterations and re-
pairs." The sitter was specially spotted and freckled
with paint to damage his damask cheek, the cigarette
30 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
was placed between his lips for ultimate removal, one
eyelid was slightly closed and the other was naturally
drawn down the result of an illness. The sitter, after
seeing the partly retouched negative, thought a slice
off each cheek would make him look more romantic, that
balance in the eyes would give him a straighter outlook
on life and that the finger mixed up with his ear mightbe amputated to complete the surgical operation. Being
against a dark background, the finger presented a better
and quicker job for the knife than for an abrasive paste,
and it was carefully etched away.The cigarette was
"consumed
"partly by abrasion
and partly with the knife. The eyelids were balanced
by the same means. The line between the lips and the
line of the upper lip, which had been raised when the
cigarette was held there, were also corrected. The nose
was thinned at the top, and a piece was worked off each
side of the jawbone to complete the modifications. Asthe removal of the finger left the hand rather too straight
from the knuckles to the finger joints, a portion of a
first finger was pencilled in to break the line.
The burned end of the cigarette against the white
collar called for the application of lead pencil. A partlike this that needs a lot of work may have to be
"double
worked."
DOUBLE WORKING
When the negative is on a glass plate, it is double
worked by retouching first in the usual way and then,
when as much lead as possible has been applied and the
film has become too smooth to take any more, flowing the
negative with a clear, hard varnish and then retouchingfurther on the varnish. When films are used instead of
PRACTICE NEGATIVES 31
glass plates, the retouching can be done on both sides of
the film, if it is not possible to apply sufficient lead on
one side.
These few operations show what can be done by the
skilful use of a knife and an abrasive paste and there are
many other similar uses for these useful tools.
PKACTICE NEGATIVES
The negatives selected for your first attempts at re-
touching should, if possible, be sharply focused portrait
negatives, preferably of coarse-featured subjects with
a few but not too many freckles. It would be a
good plan, if you can do so, to select a few subjects of
this kind and make a number of negatives for retouch-
ing practice. They must be fully exposed and properly
developed. Should you not be in a position to make such
negatives yourself, discarded portrait negatives can
often be obtained from a local photographer. When
selecting negatives for practice work, it is best to begin
with a head that is of a fair size, one that measures about
three or four inches from the chin to the top of the head,
and of a subject with blemishes on the face, such as
freckles, as the beginner will be able to observe his prog-
ress more readily on a negative of this sort than on one
with few imperfections.
It is always a good plan for a beginner to make a print
of the negative before doing any work on it, one that is
fully printed to a good depth, so that all the imperfec-
tions show clearly. This may be either a proof on
printing-out-paper or a finished print on D. O. P. By
comparing this print with another one made from the
negative after it has been retouched, the effect of the
retouching can be clearly seen and appreciated. Some-
32 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
times, too, a beginner finds a print helpful to refer to in
order to make sure which of the transparent portions of
the negative should be filled in, and which are shadows
that are needed to show the modelling or the shape of the
features.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
To begin with, it is advisable to select a large freckle
or other blemish, and by working over it with the pencil,
try to break it up and obliterate it. The spots and blem-ishes on the face, being of different shapes and sizes andof different degrees of transparency, will require differ-
ent strokes of the pencil. Some may require a series of
straight or slightly curved lines placed close together or
crossing one another. Some small blemishes may be re-
moved by using two or three small comma-shaped marks.Different workers have different ways of applying the
pencil and there is no advantage in using one particularkind of stroke instead of some other kind. Whateverstroke you use, it must be such that you cannot see it
when the negative is held against the light, nor mustthe stroke be definite in a print from the negative.Three or four light touches will often make the averagefreckle entirely unnoticeable. Always be very careful
not to do too much and get too much lead on the nega-tive. Try to remove the imperfection completely, usingas few strokes as possible. The weight of the stroke will
govern this to a great extent.
WHAT STBOKE TO USE
Do not worry too much about what stroke you oughtto use. Use any stroke that seems to you to be bestfitted for the particular spot you are working on. It
WHAT STROKE TO USE 33
does not matter how the retouching is done so long as
you succeed in filling in and obliterating the blemishes
so that they merge and blend into the surrounding areas
and there is no indication of any pencil work. Someblemishes may need only a touch of the pencil point,
others may require a little gentle stippling with dots,
with zig-zag lines, minute"figure eight
"strokes of the
pencil, or a mixture of several strokes, before they dis-
appear. When the blemish is properly treated, neither
the blemish nor the strokes used in obliterating it should
be seen.
Try to do just as little as possible. Too little is better
than too much, and the usual tendency is for a beginnerto do too much at first. When you have removed one
blemish, pick out another and work on that, using anystroke that seems best. By using all kinds of different
strokes, such as parallel lines, cross hatching, comma-
like marks,"figure eights," and so on, you will soon
find out whether you have any decided preference for
and success with any particular one of them, and youwill soon adopt, unconsciously, the methods best suited
to you. It is better to work in this way than to try to
copy some particular stroke used by someone else or
one that has been described to you. Try several strokes
and select the ones you like best.
One important thing you must always keep in mind,
and that is never to let the pencil point touch any
part of the film where no application of the lead is
needed. In filling in a freckle, keep the pencil point
away from the edges or you will only make matters
worse. The lead is to be applied only to those parts
where there is insufficient density. Work from the cen-
tre of a freckle or other blemish, filling in just up to the
34 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
edges but being careful not to go over the edges. If the
transparent spot is irregularly shaped, follow the shapewith the pencil point. Go into all the corners but be
careful not to darken the surrounding parts. Whenyou have finished one spot, take another and continue
to fill in the obvious blemishes till they have all been
removed. They will not be all of the same density;some will be more transparent than others, and theywill need different treatment. The less pronouncedthe blemish, the lighter must be the application of the
lead.
After cleaning up the most conspicuous spots as care-
fully and as completely as possible, sit back from the
work and take a general view of the whole surface of
the face. You will probably find that there are patchesof uneven density on the face and though you have
worked out the small transparent spots, you still have
some blotches and patches.The evening up of these blotches and patches of vary-
ing density is what is known as blending. It should be
done by sitting well back from the negative so that youget a general and comprehensive view of the entire face,
and using a longer and lighter stroke of the pencil, work-
ing very lightly between the patches till they are mergedand blended together and the surface appears to besmooth and even.
The subject of blending will be taken up in greaterdetail later. On your first attempt you will probablynot do more than fill in some of the blemishes, and youshould work at this until you have acquired some dex-
terity before going on to more advanced work. If youfind on your first attempt or two that you are putting ontoo much lead, do not be discouraged. That is a very
WHAT STROKE TO USE 35
frequent mistake that is made by beginners. The best
thing to do is to rub on a little more retouching me-
dium erasing what you hare done and start over
again.
It is best to begin with the blemishes in the denser
parts of the negative and, after they are removed, goon to those that are in the halftones and shadows. In
the thinner parts of the negatives your strokes must,
of course, be much lighter, and it may be necessary in
the light parts to use a harder lead. If you find that
the lead is being applied too heavily and that the strokes
show too much, use a harder lead. If, on the other hand,
you find that after working over a transparent partit does not gradually become filled in, the lead may be
too hard and you had better try a softer lead. You will
soon learn how to adapt the grade of lead to the work
that you want to do. As a rule, a medium lead should
be used, except for very dense or very transparent parts
of the negative.
After you have removed the prominent blemishes, it
would be a good plan to make another print and compareit with the one that you made before starting work.
You will notice considerable improvement, but you mayfind that still more work is needed to remove some of the
blemishes so that they do not show at all. If so, do a
little more work on the negative until that part of it
appears more even.
Only by careful practice and repeated trials can you
thoroughly master this elementary part of retouching.
This is the important stage of the work, and when youhave gained enough experience to be thoroughly fa-
miliar with the removal of blemishes in the most effective
way and with the least possible number of strokes, you
36 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
will have advanced a long way and will find the subse-
quent steps comparatively easy.
How TO AVOID EYE STRAIN
If you find that your eyes become tired after you have
been retouching for a little while, it may be because you
are straining your eyes in the effort to see the imperfec-
tions. Do not peer too closely at the negative. Sit back
and work in as easy and as comfortable a position as
possible and in a leisurely manner. Do not try to do
too much at first. Be sure, too, that the light coming
through the opening in the desk is of the right strength,
for if it is either too strong or too weak it will be apt to
cause some eye strain. The light should be just strong
enough so that you can see all the delicate gradations in
the negative and detail in the shadows as well as in the
highlights. Be careful not to have any light falling on
the negative from behind you or from the side. The
only light should be that which is transmitted throughthe negative. Light striking directly on the negative
will tend to obliterate detail and cause eye strain.
Be careful not to have your chair too far from the
desk so that you have to lean over the work. A leaning
position soon becomes tiresome. If your fingers become
cramped from holding the pencil, it may be that you are
holding it too tightly. Always hold the pencil loosely
and try to use it in a free and easy manner. Cultivate a
natural and easy position, sitting upright and avoiding
any position of the hand or arm that is not perfectly
natural and easy,
BLENDING
As we have mentioned before, the work you have been
doing in filling in and removing blemishes will make it
BLENDING 37
easier for you to see another defect in the negative that
will become more or less visible as soon as the obvious\
defects have been cleaned up. There will be an uneven-
ness and, in some cases, blotchy appearance, and it is the
connecting and linking up of these blotches and uneven^L^^r ^^^^^f ^^^^^P^ ^^^^^ ^"^^"
patches that is known as blending.
In blending you should sit well back from the negative
so that you get a broad and comprehensive view of the
negative instead of closely peering into fine details.
Hold the pencil loosely and work with a very light but
sweeping stroke between the uneven patches, until they
blend and merge imperceptibly into each other. As a
rule, only a very little pencil work will be needed, but it
must be in just the right place.
As when removing defects, it is best to start the blend-
ing in the denser parts of the negative and work steadily
through to the more transparent parts. As the fore-
head in a portrait negative is usually the most strongly
lighted part, it is usual to start with the forehead and
work gradually down. It is only after the conspicuous
blemishes have been eliminated that the unevenness or
patchiness can be seen and, of course, it varies in differ-
ent negatives .
The actual work in blending is not at all difficult
only precaution to take is to avoid working too
heavily; the blending must be done very lightly and
with a free and flowing stroke. By working lightly an
freely in the lighter parts between the denser pi will link them together and get a moi
the face. Do not be afraid of making mistakes ; eon-
ence can be acquired only by working firmly. Ex-
periment if you like by trying different s
right method- that is to say, the method that
38 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
best can be found only by experiment. After some
little practice you will find that you can apply just the
right amount of lead and in the right places to producethe desired results. You will find that often only a verylittle work is needed to get rid of the patchiness. Youmay even be surprised to find how little work is called
for. In all retouching you should try to get the desired
effect with the least possible amount of work.
After you have blended the forehead, go on down to
the cheek and then over the entire face. Always beginon the most opaque portions and work down to the deep-est shadows. With a beginner there is always a tend-
ency for the pencil strokes to be too heavy, and as it
usually requires a heavier stroke to build up the high-
lights, the first few strokes may be placed on the negativewithout the danger of their showing too heavily. Asthe work progresses, you will gain better control over
the pencil, and as you gradually work down into the
shadows, you will find you can use a lighter touch andthus properly blend the more transparent portions of
the negative.
If you will follow the directions closely and work
conscientiously you will find that, sooner or later, the
work will become simple and easy. It is advisable to
work on the same negative several times until you find
you are able to get the effect you desire. By mak-
ing a proof after each attempt, you can estimate your
progress.
CHAPTER III
Modelling The Forehead Wrinkles The Cheek The Lipsand Mouth The Nose Eyes and Eyebrows The Chin
The Ears The Shadow Cheek The Neck, Bust and Arms.
MODELLING
A sculptor, in making a portrait bust, has to get the
shape of the features correctly modelled or he will not
get a good likeness, and similarly a photographer has
to indicate correct modelling in a portrait. The shapesand contours of the face are indicated by the highlights,
halftones and shadows and therefore, if any of these are
altered, the modelling will be affected.
The posing and lighting of the sitter the correct-
ness of the exposure and the proper development of the
plate or film are factors that affect the modelling in a
portrait. Naturally, as the modelling in a portrait is the
light and shade on the face, the manner in which the
face is lighted in an important consideration. If the ex-
posure is not correct, the balance of the lights and
shadows will be disturbed and it will be incorrect also if
the negative is much over- or underdeveloped. But if
the operator and the darkroom man have performedtheir parts properly, the retoucher will have a negative
to work on in which the contours as well as the outlines
of the features are correctly indicated by the sequence
of light, halftone and shadow shown on the negative byvariations in the density of the silver deposit.
40 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
In retouching a negative, care must be taken not to
alter the modelling. The removal of blemishes and im-
perfections and the blending, already described, will
not affect the modelling if done carefully and not over-
done, but as soon as the retoucher begins to lightenshadows and accentuate highlights, he will, if he is not
very careful, change the modelling or shape of the fea-
tures and so destroy likeness.
You will get a good idea of what is meant by modellingand the indication of modelling by means of gradationsof light and shade if you will think of a white globe such
as is often seen with an electric light inside it. Whenthe electric lamp inside the globe is lighted and the globeis equally illuminated on all sides, there is really no wayof telling the shape of the globe by the lighting, but if
you were to see that same globe under different lightingconditions, such as, for instance, with light falling on it
from a single window, there would be a highlight at that
point on the globe where the direct light from the win-
dow is reflected from it and this would blend off gradu-ally, through halftone, into shadow on the side awayfrom the light. The sequence of light, halftone andshadow on the white globe would clearly indicate its
spherical shape and a correctly exposed and developednegative taken of the globe under such lighting condi-
tions would show in the negative the varying tones.
A human face, properly lighted and correctly photo-
graphed, will appear round and solid if the highlights,halftones and shadows are correctly distributed on the
face. Each separate feature has its highlights, halftones
and shadows, and if any of these highlights, halftones
and shadows are altered, the shape of the feature is
changed and the likeness is affected.
WRINKLES 41
THE FOREHEAD
Consider, for example, the forehead in a properly
lighted portrait. There must be roundness and model-
ling in the forehead, for the shape of the forehead is of
vital importance in expressing character. Character is
shown, not only by the lines and wrinkles on the fore-
head, but also by the little prominences or elevations on
the forehead which will be indicated in a well lighted
portrait by infinitely delicate gradations of tone on the
negative. It is a serious mistake, therefore, to work
over the forehead with the retouching pencil until it is
just an even expanse without any modelling. That is
just what is often done by thoughtless retouchers, but
it is obviously incorrect. As a matter of fact, if the
lighting is just a little too flat and there is a tendency
for the forehead to appear too evenly illuminated, it
would be permissible for the retoucher to work over
the highlights on the forehead very, very gently,
strengthening and accentuating them just a very
little.
WRINKLES
Wrinkles and lines on the forehead indicate individual
characteristics which become more pronounced with age.
Long vertical furrows across the whole front of the fore-
head are indicative in most cases of benevolence, there-
fore it is essential that care be exercised in pencilling such
wrinkles in the negative of an elderly person. To re-
move them entirely would destroy the likeness. It is
quite likely, however, that a young child, in making an
effort to be very good and keep quite still while having
a picture taken, may wrinkle up the forehead in a way
42 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
that is not at all natural to that child. In such a case it
would improve the likeness to remove such wrinkles.
Perpendicular wrinkles between the eyebrows, above
the nose, are said to denote honesty, so it would be a
mistake to remove them. On a smooth, young face,
however, such wrinkles might be produced by a tem-
porary frown, in which case it would improve the ex-
pression if such wrinkles were removed.
A retoucher must think of such things as tRese and
must always keep in mind the vital importance of re-
taining character and likeness.
THE CHEEK
There is a great variety in the modelling of the cheek.
Some are round and full, some hollow. Some have
rather prominent cheek-bones. If there is a high colour,
either natural or artificial, on the cheeks, it may appearon the negative as a shadow owing to the tendency of
red to photograph too dark. This may need attention
on the part of the retoucher.
As regards expression of character, a high cheek-bone
is said to indicate the animal nature in an individual,
therefore it might be permissible to spread the high-
light just a little on an unusually high cheek-bone,
working it down a little, which will tend to improve the
expression. If it is done carefully and not overdone, a
very slight modification such as that will not affect the
likeness but will tend to improve it.
In working on the cheek, care must be taken to pre-serve the roundness. In working around the eyes, do
not make the mistake of taking out the shadow under
the eye. Sometimes there seems to be a second shadowa little below the one immediately under the eye. This
THE LIPS AND MOUTH 43
second shadow usually may be removed entirely, as it is
nearly always a sign of fatigue or ill health.
Sometimes the line from the nose to the corner of the
mouth is very strongly marked. This line is known as
the labial furrow. It may often be softened and sub-
dued, but should not be removed entirely or the model-
ling of the cheek will be destroyed. The direction of the
light on the face will affect the labial furrow. If,
through faulty lighting, the furrow has been too
strongly emphasized, it may be subdued and softened.
Do not overdo the retouching of the cheek; that would
tend to make the cheek appear puffed and bloated and
would destroy likeness.
THE LIPS AXD MOUTH
It is a well established fact that character is expressed
by the shape and the proportionate size of the features.
Comparatively few retouchers give much consideration
to this subject, yet it is one that deserves attention.
Physiognomy, phrenology and character reading are
actual sciences that can be relied upon absolutely to give
a perfect reading of the character of the individual, pro-
vided you understand the principles involved.
It is not possible to take one feature and judge the
character of the individual from that. Other features
might counteract the indications. In the science of
palmistry allowance must be made for opposing indica-
tions and the same is often true in reading character
from the face. The nose, for instance, might by its
shape indicate that the individual possesses strong com-
mercial instincts, yet the balance of the head might
discredit this entirely.
Much is expressed by the shape of the mouth and
44 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
lips. Signs of honesty are expressed by a firm, steady
mouth, while selfishness is indicated by a closely shut
mouth. The thinner the lips, the less the affection. Themore the teeth are shown, the more the love of applause.
The expression is shown mostly in the eyes and mouthand the mouth is the most mobile feature. As a generalrule a pleasing expression is shown by lines that are
turned upward. A downward tendency gives a grim-ness and severity to the face. In order to see the extent
of the influence that the curve of the mouth has on the
expression, draw on a scrap of paper a couple of circles
to represent the outlines of two faces. Put in two dots
for eyes and a perpendicular line for the nose. Then
put in a curve like a half moon for the mouth ; in one
let the line curve upwards and in the other downwards.
The result will be that you will have a suggestion of twofaces with totally different expressions. A little careful
retouching on the corners of the mouth can often be done
to modify a tendency towards a downward curve.
In retouching the mouth in ordinary portrait nega-tives it is usually necessary to make only very slight
alterations, such as filling in small cracks that may showin the lower lip and softening the shadows at the corners
of the mouth. The modern tendency towards a some-what excessive application of make-up to the lips should
be discouraged as far as possible, for it produces an un-
naturally deep shadow with an abrupt edge instead of a
gradual blending. If any modification in the shape of
the lips can be made, it should, if possible, have a tend-
ency to make the lips follow the shape of the"cupid's
bow," which is always regarded as being desirable and
pleasing.
Great care must be exercised not to remove the little
THE NOSE 45
furrow that is often seen in the centre of the upper lip.
If the face has been properly lighted, the modelling in
this furrow should be fully retained.
One fact to be observed particularly in retouchingmouths is that, no matter how the negative may be
lighted, there is very seldom a marked black line between
the lips. There is darkness, certainly, but if the head
is lighted from any point above the level of the mouth,
you will observe that there are three depths of tone on
the lips unless these natural tones have been obliterated
by a too liberal application of lip-stick. The lower lip,
being the most strongly lighted, will be lighter in tone
than the red part of the upper lip, but the upper lip will
throw a shadow on the lower lip, and this shadow
will be or should be the darkest of all. Of course this will
show more plainly on negatives in which the head is a
good size. Under many lightings, there will be a small
but often quite definite highlight on the lower lip which,
by its shape and its position, indicates the size and shapeof the mouth.
THE
Being the most prominent feature of the face, the
nose requires special care in modelling. There is often
a prominent highlight on the bridge of the nose and the
shape of this highlight indicates the shape of the nose.
It must be remembered that the bone structure extends
only a little way down the bridge of the nose and beyondthat point is cartilage. This change is often indicated bya slight break in the line of light on the bridge of the
nose. There is a tendency too for the nose to become a
little thinner and narrower just at that point. There
is usually another strongly defined highlight on the tip
46 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
of the nose and it Is the position of that highlight that
determines more than anything else the length of the
nose.
In the case of a markedly crooked nose, it may be ad-
visable to straighten the highlight by a little careful etch-
ing and pencilling. A retrousse nose may be lengtheneda little by slightly lowering the highlight on the tip of
the nose. Such modifications as these must never be
overdone or the likeness will be destroyed.
EYES AND EYEBBOWS
There is no portion of the face that requires such care-
ful handling as the eye and eyebrow. Very often the eye
gives the whole expression and this may be easily ruined
by the least overworking on this part of the face. In-
telligent handling, however, may often materially im-
prove the expression.
If the eye on the shadow side of the face needs to be
built up just a little, a slight strengthening will give a
more pleasing effect and still not change the expression.This must never be over-done, however, and the balance
of light and shade must be preserved.The shadow under the eye must never be entirely re-
moved. It may sometimes be lightened if it is verydark. The lines at the outer corner of the eyes, whichare usually described as
"crow's feet," are very charac-
teristic of the individual and, though they may often be
subdued, they should never be removed or the likeness
will be seriously affected. People who laugh veryreadily often have such lines at the outer corners of
the eyes and in dealing with lines and wrinkles on the
face, the age of the subject must always be considered.
Lines and wrinkles that occasionally appear on a very
EYES AND EYEBROWS 47
young face may usually be removed entirely, but in the
case of an older subject this would be entirely wrong,though they may be modified considerably so that theyare not so pronounced.When the face is lighted by artificial light coming
from two or three different sources as is often the case
at the present time, there may be several spots of re-
flected light on the pupil of the eye and when this is the
case, it is usually best to take out all except one the
most important one. If there is any doubt as to which
one this is, make a print and paint out the highlights andso find out which are the ones that should be etched off
the negative.
The eyebrows probably will need very little retouch-
ing especially now when it is customary to" make up
"
the eyebrows so carefully. You may sometimes find a
subject where the eyebrows meet or almost meet above
the nose. As this is apt to give a frowning expressionto the face and is not considered to be at all attractive,
it is permissible to modify this considerably and even
to remove a little from the inner corner of each eyebrow.The extent to which this should be done depends uponthe age and sex of the subject.
In profile views especially, character is shown by the
chin. A well shaped, square chin is regarded as a sign
of honesty, a strong, dominant personality is indicated
by a projecting chin, while a receding chin indicates the
absence of such qualities. Sometimes with subjects whoare inclined to be stout, there is a fullness under the chin
that is not at all pleasing. This can often be modified
by careful use of the etching knife as well as the pencil.
48 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
In a front view of the face this is not so easy to do,
however, by working away the folds in the flesh with
the pencil and by careful rubbing down or etching of
those parts that are too strongly lighted, it is possible to
give the subject a very nicely shaped chin.
If there is a deep dimple in the chin, it may be modi-fied by a little careful retouching, but it should never be
entirely eliminated, for to do so would tend to broadenthe chin and the likeness would be very much impaired.
THE EARS
In profile views of the face, one ear is usually shown
very distinctly and even the ear shows traits of charac-
ter. An ear, for instance, that is inclined to be pointedat the top and is joined to the head without any lobe
at the bottom indicates that the owner of that ear is in-
clined to be selfish. A long, narrow ear is said to showambition. A well rounded ear that is almost as wide at
the bottom as it is at the top shows a vital temperament.The "
physical"ear is pointed at the top and the
"men-
tal"ear is pointed at the bottom.
Not much retouching is needed on the ear as a generalrule. It is generally advisable to keep the ear as sub-
dued and as unobtrusive as possible, lest it attract undueattention.
THE SHADOW CHEEK
In retouching a three-quarter view of the face lightedwith an
"ordinary
"front-side lighting, so that one side
of the face is illuminated and the other side is in shadow,the shadow cheek should usually be left to the last.
You will need a very delicate touch and after havingworked on the lighted parts of the face your touch will
THE NECK, BUST AND ARMS 49
have become much lighter and you will have good control
over your pencil. This will enable you to control the
work in the shadows of the shadow cheek and preventthe pencil marks from being too heavy.
There will be a highlight on the cheek, just as there
is on the other cheek, but it will be very faint and barely
visible unless, of course, there is a secondary lighting
on the shadow side of the face. There may be a strip of
light on the edge of the cheek from a spot-light.
THE NECK, BUST AXD ASMS
In retouching the neck, bust and arms we must adopta method of handling the pencil which should get over
the ground as quickly as possible and yet print with the
desired effect. We should work with a broad and open
style, with the eyes well back from the negative, using
the pencil freely and easily and watching very carefully
the general direction of the pencil strokes.
On the neck, the stroke should be across the neck,
never up and down. On the bust we may change the
direction of the pencil strokes and instead of makingthem follow the curve of the jaw, have them make an
angle of about forty-five degrees with the perpendicu-
lar, although almost any direction except directly upand down is allowable. On the arms, the direction of
the pencil strokes should be anything except parallel
with the length of the arms or at right angles directly
across the width of the arm.
Very few ladies like to show a bony or scraggy neck,
and therefore all indication of muscles such as the large
one proceeding from the back of the ear to the collar-
bone, which is used for turning the head from side to
side, should be removed, at least as far as the perpen-
50 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
dicular character is concerned, leaving, however, an indi-cation of its insertion in the breast-bone, which indica-tion marks the limit of the length of the neck.In retouching the arms we have a very great variety
in the texture of the skin, but one style of handling willbe found sufficient. Let the touch be of a scumblingcharacter, taking any direction except parallel with the
length of the arm. If the arm is hanging down, theveins on the hand may become more prominent than is
desirable. If this is the case, the veins may be removedentirely. On no account should the marking in front ofthe elbow be taken out, as that produces a woodeneffect.
CHAPTER IV
What to Aim at Children's Faces Babies and Aged People
Regarding Anatomy and Likeness Freckled Faces The Ordi-
nary Face The Best Touch Direction of the Touch Me-
chanical Devices for Retouching Construction Operation
Etching Practice Work Reducing Paste.
WHAT TO AIM AT
In retouching negatives of portraits, one of the first
considerations on the part of amateurs and beginners is
to attain texture, and in so doing they waste valuable
time and energy on a subject that really does not de-
mand that expenditure. The cause of this mistake is the
same that produces many others on the part of the tyro ;
he endeavours to get a good result without any definite
idea as to what that result should be and thinks that if
he produces a nice stipple he has retouched the face, for-
getting in the first place why it is desirable that a stipple
should be there at all and, in the second place, what it
should represent.
The writer has seen instructions to retouchers in which
they are advised to work with a succession of marks
resembling commas dots, in fact, with tails to them ;
others advise working with small circles, with straight
lines, or cross-hatching, or dots alone, and in many other
different methods. Such advice may be given with per-
fect honesty and the persons giving such advice may be
perfectly capable of producing good results by the meth-
ods that they advise, but, in the writer's opinion, such
52 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
instructions serve only to confuse the novice and retard
his progress. It is impossible for any one person to
work precisely in the same way as another and it is un-
wise for a beginner to attempt to follow exactly the
movements of another hand. The best plan is to study
carefully those parts of the negative that need to be
strengthened and the parts to be removed or altered and
make sure that the work is done with a certain degree of
finish. Then we will find that the texture will, in a
measure, take care of itself.
Suppose, for instance, we have to retouch the face
of an old man, a deeply lined and rugged face. Com-mon sense will tell us that if we work at it until the skin
looks as smooth as a child's, it will be far from true
to nature.
A certain amount of discrimination must be used in
retouching and no hard and fast rules will apply in everycase. One's methods must be differentiated accordingto the nature of the work in hand. Observe the charac-
ter and texture of the skin in the negative being worked
upon and try to produce the same effect. Some faces
are patchy but soft. Do away with the patchiness, but
leave the surface smooth.
CHILDREN'S FACES
Children's faces cannot be too delicately worked, andthe softer and chubbier you leave them, the more natu-
ral they will appear. Strong lighting and heavy re-
touching will tend to add age to a child's face. Somechildren have many freckles ; these it is always well to
remove; no one has ever asserted that freckles consti-
tute beauty.In the faces of young men and women there should be
BABIES AXD AGED PEOPLE 53
no deep lines or wrinkles. There must of course be light
and shade and modelling, sometimes even deep shadows
that it is desirable to leave. It is in retouching the faces
of women of middle age that there is the greatest need
for the exercise of some discrimination and tact. If
you do not make them youthful enough, you may offend,
yet, if you flatter certain sitters too much, they will
quickly object. In dealing with photography on a
business basis and in making portraits that are to be
readily salable, it is perhaps advisable to err, if at all,
in the direction of overdoing the retouching rather than
doing too little. In retouching the negatives of elderly
people you can modify and soften the indications of age,
and you can soften the skin and reduce the wrinkles very
slightly, but it would be a great mistake to put a smooth
stipple all over such a face.
BABIES AKD AGED PEOPLE
The faces of babies and very old people usually re-
quire only a very little retouching. If the photographerhas been careful in arranging the lighting and if the
negative was fully exposed and properly developed, it
will be hardly necessary for the retoucher to do anything
at all. There may be pinholes or similar defects that
have to be removed and there may be some slight blem-
ishes of the skin that will call for a slight amount of ele-
mentary pencil work, but, apart from that, it is very
seldom that any retouching is needed. Most children
have clear complexions, and to add an artificial"stip-
ple" to the negative would destroy its characteristic
beauty. There should be no "grain,
3 *
for a child's skin
is so soft and smooth that it has no grain.
The faces of aged people are just the reverse. The
54 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
skin is not soft and smooth, but it has a characteristic
texture. Every feature is full of character which has
been gradually moulded through the years that the in-
dividual has been fighting the battles of life. This
should of course be retained and so the retoucher should
rarely do more than remove minor blemishes of the skin.
Wrinkles should not be removed altogether, but if
a harsh lighting has been used and the wrinkles have
been very strongly accentuated, they should be softened.
As a rule a rather soft, flat lighting is best suited to old
faces. There is already so much character in the face
that it does not need to be emphasized by the use of a
contrasty lighting.
AISTD LIKENESS
A photograph is not a microscopic study of anatomy,therefore do not attempt to reproduce every pore of the
skin as some retouchers do. If you were going to painta portrait, you would not take a fine brush and draw in
separately every hair on the head, but you would try to
represent the masses of hair as masses. The same idea
applies with equal force to the texture of the skin. Anartist will try to represent as much as possible with one
touch of the brush.
Every good portrait negative should show clearly the
good points as well as the defects in the face, the charac-
teristic shape of the features and the anatomy of the
face, and the retoucher should never alter these exceptthat he may to some extent modify and improve when-ever possible any defects in the face that may be undulyprominent. How far a retoucher may go in doing this
has been taken up in the consideration of each separatefeature. Crooked noses, double chins, eyes that are not
REGARDING ANATOMY AND LIKENESS 55
quite straight, prominent or poorly shaped ears are some
of the defects that may be corrected in the negative in
order to obtain a more pleasing and a more salable
print. The modification of facial defects should be
taken care of as far as possible in the posing and lighting
of the subject, for there is a great deal that can be done
towards subduing some such defects by careful selection
of the best point of view from which to photograph the
face. A good operator will do all he can to make it
unnecessary for the retoucher to undertake any very
drastic modification of the negative. A slightly crooked
nose, for instance, is often far less noticeable when seen
from one side of the face than from the other. The
better side, as a rule, is the side from which the nose
appears to have been pushed. A double chin is far less
prominent if the head is well raised and a standing pose
is taken rather than one seated and with the head
dropped. If the eyes are very unequal, a profile view,
showing the better eye, may be the solution of the diffi-
culty. Ears may be shaded and placed in deep shadow
so that their prominence is subdued. After a clever
operator has done his best, an equally clever and experi-
enced retoucher can do much towards improving the
artistic effect in a portrait.
But retouching should never be overdone so that it
destroys the likeness and natural expression. Half-
tones and shadows must be fully respected, for upontheir contrast with the highlights depends the roundness
and modelling of the features. You can blend the edges
of tones, and grade one tone into another, removing and
filling in obvious defects such as freckles or other flaws
in the skin, but do not change the modelling or the like-
ness will be affected.
56 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
Occasionally you can strengthen highlights a little if
they need it, and when you do so, begin with the fore-
head where the highlights are usually the strongest, and
work downwards. Endeavour to accomplish your re-
sults with as little work as possible. The less the amount
of lead applied, the better the results obtained. High-
lights that are just a little too strong may be pencilled
around very softly and graded into the immediately
surrounding tones. This will usually tend to reduce
them sufficiently.
FRECKLED FACES
In the case of freckles, it is advisable softly but de-
terminedly to nibble them out as you work along, tak-
ing them feature by feature, and not going from one
part of the face to another. With one bold attack, work
out each freckle as you come to it.
Plate VI shows an unretouched, heavily freckled face
and Plate VII presents the same after retouching,
worked feature by feature to solidity and gradation.
Do not work aimlessly, first a touch or two on the nose,
a touch on the brow and then on the cheeks, but take the
forehead first, working from the highlights, then the
cheeks, nose, upper jaw, chin and neck, completing each
feature separately and never having to go back on the
work already done.
It may be mentioned that the sitter shown in Plates
VI and VII really possesses a very nice, clear com-
plexion, but owing to the impossibility of obtaining per-mission from any freckled lady to allow her imperfec-tions to be published, the freckles had to be painted uponthe face of the sitter, upon the distinct promise to men-tion the fact in the book. Even so, it shows considerable
THE BEST TOUCH 57
courage on the part of the lady. After this who shall
say"Vanity, thy name is woman! " The faking of
the freckles was purposely overdone, lest the halftone
reproduction should minimize their full beauty. Much
of the delicate halftones is lost in the reproduction of
Plate VII.
THE OEDIXABY FACE
To return to the ordinary, unfreckled face. Proceed
to fill in whatever shadows or dark markings you in-
tend to remove, and bear in mind there can be only one
part of a head that will have the highest light on it, so
be careful to make all other lights subservient to that
highest one. There is also one shadow that is deeper
than the others; do not therefore fill in all shadows so
that they are equal in depth, as that will produce flatness.
When you have done this, you will see that the negative
looks patchy. Fill in the largest patches with any move-
ment of the pencil you find most convenient (bearing
in mind that if you do not work with stippled dots you
will make lines) and, although it is impossible to lay
down a system as infallible and declare that it is the only
one, yet it may be of service to some to know of a method
which has been attended with complete success.
THE BEST TOUCH
In the writer's own personal experience he found lines
to be the best and most effective method to attain speed
and excellence. Therefore it would be well to let your
touch at any rate, to begin with have the character
of lines following the general direction of the different
features, but of course they must not be made with suffi-
cient density and weight so that they will show as lines
58 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
in the finished work, but finely and delicately and with-
out pressure.All pencilling on the negative must be of the lightest
possible character except where extra sharp edges or
heavy shadows may call for a bolder and more deter-
mined attack. The line touch, either horizontal, diago-
nal, vertical (on the nose only), or the first two curved
to follow the general direction of the features, with the
pencil running here, there and everywhere, seeking the
broken and ragged edges of the different tones and grad-
ing them away until lost to sight, is undoubtedly the
quickest and most satisfactory method of retouching,
especially when it is varied with an occasional cross-
hatch to blend and knit the whole, and then on again,
seeking edges to devour, for leaving edges and ragged-ness and the wholesale removal of halftones and shadows
are the cardinal sins in retouching.There are many other touches used by skilled work-
ers, from the cross-hatch to the comma, the tight, nig-
gling stipple and the irritating dotting or tap-tapping of
the point of the pencil almost dead-on and at right
angles to the negative, which is indeed enough to makethe worker
"dotty
"with its nerve-wracking, monoto-
nous sound.
According to the writer's experience, where illustra-
tions of the different touches have been shown on a largeor small scale without a teacher's supervision, the effects
attained by the novice have been simply disastrous, for
he has accepted them literally and boldly and has
hatched heavily, has dotted and circled all over the face
indiscriminately, cutting through the feature and face
lines in the most appalling manner, and so increasingthe density where no density was required. Retouching
DIRECTION OF THE TOUCH 59
is an art of delicacy and long-practised skilful treat-
ment, and no stereotyped, conventional"touch
"can be
truly effective, for it must of necessity be constantlybroken and altered to follow the tones, edges and grada-tions as shown in the unretouched negative. The run-
ning line touch is the least dangerous of any and is
certainly the easiest in the hands of a beginner, especiallyif continued in a circular direction closely or broadly
according to the part to be worked, and he is advised to
keep strictly to it until almost without knowing it he
finds his own "touch
"just as the schoolboy in time
acquires his own "fist
"in writing.
To attempt the finishing of a face with a regulation,
even-weight touch is to court disaster, for the long ex-
perienced professional seldom thinks of the touch or the
stroke that he employs. He instinctively changes from
one touch to another according to the effect he wants
to produce.
DlEECTION OF THE TOUCH
The lines should usually tend to go across the surface
you are working on, following the natural curves of the
face. A safe rule is to let the pencil follow the curve
of the eyebrows in working the forehead, tailing off at a
diagonal slant into the temples, especially in the treat-
ment of wrinkles. On the cheeks work with the curve
shown by the lower eyelids and on the jawbone or face
line work softly with the line and in the direction in
which it runs. Never cut through the face line, wrinkles,
crow's feet, or any of the pronounced lines of the face,
but always work with them.
We have all seen the stripe down the side of a soldier*s
trouser leg; it carries the eye with it and makes the leg
60 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
look longer. Horizontal lines would have just the oppo-site effect and would give a suggestion of breadth, so
whichever way your lines incline, they will lead the eyein that direction and will convey a suggestion of heightor breadth according to the direction in which they run.
On the highlights of the forehead, the cheek bones,
the tip of the nose and chin, the touch may be circular,
especially on the chin, but for increasing the highlight
on the bridge of the nose, the touch should be at the
same slant as the line of the nose, in a series of lines
parallel with the nose line as shown by the shadow side
of the face. This increased line of lighting must be
softened off on both sides and not left like a streak of
whitewash, as is so often seen, and neither must it com-
mence right at the root of the nose and run down its
entire length, but it must commence and end exactlywhere shown in the unretouched state. The pencil
drawings reproduced in Plates VIII to XI were de-
signed to show the directions of the strokes advisable in
retouching different features.
MECHANICAL DEVICE POE RETOUCHING
The use of electric retouching machines is now be-
coming very common in professional establishments andtheir use has been found to result in a speeding up of the
work and a more uniform touch- They have been foundalso to afford relief from nerve strain, which is an im-
portant consideration when retouching is done continu-
ously for many hours. Of the several such machines
that were placed on the market some years ago, the
only one that has proved to be practical and thoroughlyefficient is the Gilbert Electric Retoucher,
" The Little
Speedster," a pencil vibrated by electricity that reduces
MECHANICAL DEVICE FOE RETOUCHING 61
drudgery and fatigue to a minimum and makes re-
touching a pleasure instead of an irksome task.
These machines are capable of giving a stroke of
varying quality, suitable for work of any grade, from
a coarse stipple to the finest possible stroke, and this is
done automatically by a simple adjustment of a screw
connected with the oscillator.
The electric retoucher gives the stroke by automatic
vibration and all that it necessary is for the operator to
know where to place the lead and then guide the pencil
over the negative, as in ordinary retouching.
It is best to use a long point, from one and a half to
two and a half inches long, and of course the degree of
hardness of the lead must be adjusted according to the
character of the work in hand.
CONSTRUCTION
In the Gilbert"Little Speedster
"the oscillator is
placed on the end of a retouching pencil. A pencil is
furnished with the outfit, although any pencil or lead
holder of a proper size to fit the shell may be used.
Connection for the electric current is furnished by a
light weight flexible cord conductor and a transformer
that screws into any electric socket. The device may be
obtained to operate on any current, either direct or
alternating, or it may be used with dry cells if electric
current is not available.
OPERATION
Mr. Gilbert makes the following suggestions on the
use of the"Little Speedster," A hard or a soft lead
should be used according to the density of the negative
or of the part that is being worked on. The longer the
62 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
point, the finer the work. For fine work the pointshould be about two and a half inches long. For a coarse
stipple do not have the point so long, nor quite so sharp.Do not lift the pencil from the negative except to inspectthe work. Look ahead as you work, beginning on the
highlights and working down to the deepest shadows.
The weight of the pencil lightly applied to the negativeis usually sufficient for average work, but a little more
pressure may be applied if needed to fill in heavy lines.
Have plenty of diffused light coming through the nega-tive so that it is not necessary to sit close to the negativein order to see where to apply the lead, but do not haveso much light that the delicate gradations are obliter-
ated. A little careful practice with the"Little Speed-
ster"
should make any beginner at retouching really
expert in a few weeks. The machine will do the workand will do it right if it is properly guided, and an ama-teur will find that by the use of such a machine he cando retouching that is equal in every way to that of themost expert professional.
ETCHING
Etching, or reducing the density of the negative bymeans of a knife, should not be taken up until the re-
toucher has gained some experience in the use of a
pencil. By means of the pencil, shadows can be built
up and can be partly or entirely eliminated, and trans-
parent blemishes can be removed. By means of etchingyou can reduce highlights that are too strong and youcan remove objectionable parts entirely from the nega-tive if that should be desirable, so that by a combinationof retouching and etching you can make practically
any alteration that you may desire on the negative.
ETCHING 63
Highlights on prominent bones in the neck may be
subdued, crooked noses may be straightened, the
contour of the figure may be improved and may be re-
duced in size if too stout, and many other things maybe done without very much difficulty when some
dexterity in the use of the knife has been acquired by
practice.
Careful practice is the secret of success in the use of
the etching knife and the knife must be really sharp.
Some retouchers think that a thin, flexible blade such
as a razor blade is not of much use for etching, while
others find such blades entirely satisfactory. The great
advantage in using a safety-razor blade is that a new
blade is usually very sharp and is in good shape to use,
while a regular retouching knife, such as those illustrated
in, Fig. 2, has to be sharpened carefully and expertly
with a slightly bevelled edge instead of a thin edge like
a razor blade.
As a matter of fact we believe that good work can be
done with either type of knife and that the preference
for one or the other depends entirely on which one
the user has become accustomed to. Mr. T. S. Bruce,
an expert English professional retoucher and teacher
of retouching, who revised several editions of this book,
much preferred etching knives of the types shown in
Fig. 2 and was not at all enthusiastic about safety-razor
blades, while, on the other hand, the reviser of the pres-
ent edition would not want to use anything but a razor
blade for etching. It is largely a matter of personal
preference and we believe that any type of knife, as
long as it is in good condition, can be used successfully
after the user has learned how to handle it to the best
advantage.
64 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
Skill in the use of the etching knife can be gained only
by constant practice.
PRACTICE WOEK
Before attempting to etch any part of a negative that
is a valuable one, you should provide yourself with a few
discarded negatives and practise etching on them.
Negatives with opaque, dense backgrounds are to be pre-
ferred, as they afford a better opportunity for practis-
ing. Every worker must find out for himself the manner
of holding the knife that suits him best, but we believe
that it will be found best to hold the blade of the knife
between the thumb and the first and second fingers, in
such a way that the side of the thumb and the tip of the
first finger are actually in contact with the negative while
the blade is being used. The blade must be held perpen-
dicularly to the surface of the negative, with practically
no slant. If it is slanted at all, the blade should lean to-
wards you and not away from you, but too much slant is
apt to cause you to cut too deep and with the blade held
perpendicularly you can better control the depth of the
scraping or shaving of the surface of the negative.
The secret of success in etching is to use the blade very
lightly. The first few strokes should make practically
no perceptible mark but with continued light strokes
of the knife a gradual change will take place and the
film will become thinner where the knife has been appliedto it. Do not use the point or corner of the blade, as
that will scratch the film and not shave it smoothly.The point should be used only when you want to etch
a fine line.
The only way to become expert with the etching knife
is by practice, and so the would-be retoucher must get
PRACTICE WORK 65
as much practice as possible on discarded negatives, so
that he will feel perfectly free at first to try different
methods of working and of holding the knife without
the fear of spoiling a valued negative. A dense, white
background gives plenty of scope for etching and some
negatives with such backgrounds should be secured if
it is possible.
On a plain white background you can see the effect
of your work more distinctly; you can see whether the
knife is scratching the film or is shaving smoothly. Youhave a large area on which to practise, and such pre-
liminary practice should be kept up until you can
control the knife and can produce any effect that youdesire.
If the knife scratches and does not shave smoothly,
it is either because it is not sharp enough or because it
is not being held properly. The exact angle at which
to hold the blade will soon be discovered after a little
practice. Usually when it is perpendicular it will shave
nicely without either cutting the film or scratching it.
If the top of the blade is leaning too much towards you,
the knife will scratch the film instead of shaving
smoothly. If it is sloping the other way, the knife will
be apt to cut too deeply. Keep in mind always the need
for extreme lightness and delicacy in etching. A single
stroke of the etching tool on the film should show
no perceptible effect, but after repeated strokes a
slight thinning of the density of the film should be
visible.
One difficulty the beginner may experience at first is
in placing the knife on the exact place where the etching
is needed. This is another thing that will be easily
learned after a little actual experience.
66 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
REDUCING PASTE
An etching knife is almost indispensable for manypurposes, and a really competent retoucher ought to be
expert in its use, yet there is another method of reducing
density that is often more convenient than the use of a
knife. By means of a reducing paste, which is made upof a very fine abrasive powder mixed with a heavy
grease, large areas in the negative can be smoothly,
easily and fairly quickly reduced in density. To darken
drapery or to reduce highlights that are too strong, or
bring down the over-exposed parts of a negative such
as windows in an interior view into better relation
with the rest of the negative, the use of a reducing pasteis very effective.
The paste can be applied with the finger tip By taking
up a small quantity of the paste on the finger tip and
then rubbing with a circular motion over the part of the
negative that is to be reduced. You will find that it re-
quires only very little pressure to reduce the densityof the space to which you have applied the reducing
paste. The more heavily the film is rubbed, the more
quickly will the density be reduced. By means of a
light or a heavy pressure you have absolute control over
the blending and you can get almost any desired result.
Begin by rubbing lightly at first and then increase the
pressure a little if quicker action is desired.
The secret of successful reducing with abrasive pasteis in the amount of pressure that is used when applyingthe paste. By practice you will soon learn the exact
amount of pressure that is best, and it is well worth
while to become familiar with this method of reducing
density.
REDUCING PASTE 67
If you do not care to use your finger in applying the
paste, you can stretch a piece of canton flannel over the
finger tip and use that instead of the uncovered finger.
If you want to apply the paste to a small or very narrow
part of the negative, you can make a stump by rolling
some cotton over the end of a thin stick and working it
down with some of the paste into a blunt point.
There are many occasions on which the etching knife
or reducing paste should be used in actual professional
work. Sometimes the eyebrows are not well shaped or
are uneven. It is a simple matter to etch in a small
portion to make them balance or to improve the shape.
Sometimes a little hair can be etched in if there is a bald
spot on the head that is rather conspicuous. Sometimes
there has been a too liberal application of a greasy prepa-
ration to keep the hair flat, which causes the hair to
catch the light too strongly, so that there are highlights
that are too conspicuous. In the latter case, the film
should be etched only just enough to match the sur-
rounding parts. In a case where the nose is noticeably
crooked, it may be necessary to etch away a portion of
the highlight on the side towards which the nose curves,
and pencil in a little light on the other side, to straighten
the line of light. Of course such work as this must
always be done so carefully that there is no indication
of any such modification on the prints.
Always make proofs from the negatives that are to be
etched before doing any etching, so that you can see
exactly what needs to be done.
On a portrait of a lady in evening dress the outline of
the neck and shoulders often needs to be modified and,
after making a proof print and indicating the changes
on that, the outline, when it is satisfactory, should next
68 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
be marked on the negative. Then reduce, with paste,
either on the finger tip or on a stump, any highlights on
the neck or shoulders that may be too strong. Some-
times a small chamois stump will be found practical and
serviceable for applying the paste. When this has
been done, etch away carefully those portions of the
shoulder and neck that are to be removed entirely, work-
ing carefully till those parts that have been etched match
perfectly with the background. Plates XII and XIIIshow the work of a skilled English retoucher in com-
pletely altering the style of hairdressing and brighten-
ing up an old negative to bring the sitter's favourite pose
up to date.
When the etching has been completed, apply re-
touching dope in the usual way and proceed with the
retouching. If there are any places where the etchinghas been overdone, they can be built up with the pencil.
Do not, however, apply the retouching dope until all
the etching has been completed, for it is not so easy to
etch the film after it has been doped.
CHAPTER V
Retouching Landscape and Architectural Negatives ApplyingGround Glass Substitute Working on the Back of the Negative
Papier Mineral The Air Brush Blocking-out Negative
Varnish Softening Edges Etching away the Background
Filling in Scratches on the Negative Photographs of Animals
Etching a Single Figure from a Group Straightening Crossed
Eyes.
RETOTJCHIXG LANDSCAPE AND AECHITECTUEAI,
XEGATIYES
There is a very prevalent idea that retouching needs
to be applied only to portrait negatives. It is true that
almost all of the portrait negatives that are made
either in the home or in a professional studio can be
improved to some extent by a little careful work on them
by an expert retoucher, and there are also a number of
other subjects that might be greatly improved in the
same way.In negatives of landscape subjects there is often too
much contrast, blurring of trees through movement
caused by a strong breeze, the inclusion of unnecessary
detail, a lack of clouds, a falling off of the definition at
the corners owing to imperfect covering power of the
lens, part of the image being cut off by sagging bellows,
to say nothing of pinholes, airbells, scratches on the film
and other defects.
There are ways of correcting such defects by means
of retouching, both with the pencil and with the knife
70 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
and reducing paste. Sometimes it is not possible to do
as much work as is needed on the film side of the nega-tive, in which case we can apply ground glass substitute
and work on the other side of the negative as well.
Ground glass substitute may be purchased from anydealer in photographic supplies. Those who are inter-
ested in making such things will find the following for-
mula very satisfactory :
Gum sandarac 90 gr.
Gum mastic 20 gr.
Dissolve in ether 2 oz.
Add benzole 1 to 1^ oz.
To apply the ground glass substitute to the glass side
of the negative, proceed as follows :
APPLYING GROUND GLASS SUBSTITUTE
Be sure the glass is perfectly clean and free from
dust. Hold the negative, glass side up, in the left hand,with the thumb at the extreme corner and the fingers
supporting the plate underneath. Pour a pool of
ground glass varnish into the centre of the negativea little more than enough to cover the negative and
immediately tip the plate gently so that the varnish will
run down into the right hand top corner. Just as it
reaches the corner, tilt the negative gently so that the
varnish will run towards the left hand top corner, then
guide it down towards the left hand bottom corner and
finally into the right hand corner, tipping the negativeover the mouth of the varnish bottle so that any excess
will run back into the bottle. The varnish will set almost
immediately, with a surface that very closely resembles
ground glass. There is a knack in applying the ground
WORKING ON THE BACK OF THE NEGATIVE 71
glass substitute that will be acquired after one or two
trials. The important thing is to go slow and avoid
jerky movements in tilting the negative to guide the
flow of the varnish. Tip the negative only very slightly
and gradually, so that the varnish will flow in a con-
tinuous sweep over the entire surface of the negative,
from the right hand top corner, along the top, down the
left side and across the bottom and then back into the
bottle. It must not be done too slowly and deliberately
or the varnish may begin to set before the plate is en-
tirely covered. Try not to get any of the varnish on the
film side, but if a little should get on to the wrong side
of the plate, it can -be removed by means of a wad of
cotton dipped in denatured alcohol.
If you are using films instead of glass plates, you can
flow the substitute on a piece of clear glass the size of
the film and then bind the film to the glass, or you can
use a piece of real ground glass and bind the film to that.
WORKING ON- THE BACK OF THE NEGATIVE
When the plate has been coated on the back with
ground glass substitute, you have a fine surface on which
you can work with pencil, paint or crayon sauce applied
with a stump. In this way you can build up a portion
of a negative that may be almost or entirely blank
through faulty manipulation of the camera or through
poor covering power on the part of the lens. If there
are parts that should print out a little darker, such as
clouds in a sky that is too dense, you can scrape off the
ground glass substitute in those parts so that the light
will penetrate more easily. In doing so, be careful to
blend off the edges so that they are not apparent in the
print. The thickness of the glass will give a little dif-
72 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
fusion which will help to prevent the edges showing too
plainly.
You can add density to this ground glass surface with
a pencil of any degree of softness. You can use ordi-
nary drawing pencils, as you do not need the fine, sharp
point of a retouching pencil, or you can use a soft lead
with a chisel point, as shown in Fig. 1, You can use
powdered crayon on a stump, or water colour appliedwith a brush.
If only a line or two is needed or if there are onlya few highlights that need to be strengthened, this can
be done directly on the glass, without applying any
ground glass substitute, by using a special pencil that
is made for marking on glass, china or metal. Such a
pencil can be obtained from any photographic dealer.
PAPIER MINERAL
Another favourite way of preparing a negative so that
parts of it can be strengthened by the addition of hand-
work on the back is to attach a piece of thin tracing papersuch as
"papier mineral
"or onion skin paper or
even a very fine grained tissue paper to the back of
the negative, if it is a glass plate, and then work on that
with pencil, paint or crayon. The paper should be laid
in water and thoroughly wetted before it is applied.A narrow strip of mucilage or liquid glue is applied to
the negative, close to the edge, and then the wet paperwhich has been pressed between two sheets of blotting
paper is attached to the negative and pressed down care-
fully so that it sticks to the glue at the edges of the
negative. By wetting the paper before it is applied, it
will expand a little and then when it shrinks again in
drying it will be found to be perfectly flat and tightly
BLOCKING OUT 73
drawn so that it presents a good surface on which to
work.
Such paper is less transparent than ground glass or
ground glass substitute and will hold back the negativemore in printing. If there are parts that are too dense,
the paper may be cut away with a sharp knife, to helpon those dense parts, or the paper may be made more
transparent in those places by means of an applicationof a solution of one part of balsam to six parts of
turpentine.
THE AIR BKUSH
The air brush is now used very extensively in photog-
raphy, especially by commercial photographers and
those who make photographs for advertising purposes.Not only is the air brush used in working up prints, but
it is also used on the negative, for putting in back-
grounds and for building up negatives. A portrait
photographer could make good use of an air brush for
working on the print or on the negative, and a re-
toucher who has acquired some skill and experience in
the use of the air brush would find it very helpful to him
in his work. For working up enlargements, either in
black and white or in colour, the air brush is an ideal in-
strument and this use will be taken up in further detail
in a later chapter.
BLOCKING OUT
Sometimes in commercial photography it is necessaryto block out the entire background so that it will be
opaque on the negative and will print out white in the
print. This sort of work calls for some practice and a
very steady hand. Blocking out is usually done on the
74 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
film side of the negative, following the outlines closely
and carefully, either with a fine brush or with a fine
pointed pen such as is used for making maps. If the
edges of the object that is being blocked out are straight,
such as in a piece of machinery for instance, a straight-
edge may be used to guide the pen. For curves, it is
sometimes possible to find one that will fit on the cellu-
loid forms used by draughtsmen. Otherwise the edgesand outlines must be followed carefully by hand.
Either opaque or waterproof drawing ink may be
used. That is a matter of individual choice, as either
of them serves the purpose very well. When a pen is
used, it must be handled very carefully and the film must
be perfectly dry and hard or the pen will be apt to
scratch. Whether you use a pen or a brush, work very
carefully and do not have too much ink or opaque on
the pen or brush.
Some workers use an ordinary retouching desk with
the carrier frame lying back as far as possible. Others
prefer a glass topped table with an artificial light under-
neath, so that the negative can be perfectly flat all the
time. Turn the negative in any direction that is most
convenient. Work away from corners and not into
them and always work outwards from the centre of
the negative.
The usual method of working is to outline the subject
carefully with the pen and then extend the outline with
a brush until it is about half an inch wide. Then the rest
of the negative that has to be blocked out can be covered
with opaque paper cut to the required shape, so that
it overlaps the opaqued line.
Two coats may be needed. It is a good plan, after
the first opaque line has been completed, to set the nega-
SOFTENING EDGES 75
tire aside to dry before putting on the opaque paper.When it is dry, examine it carefully to see if there are
any places where a little more ink or opaque is needed.
If a large number of prints are to be made from the
blocked-out negative, the ink or opaque can be pro-tected from rubbing off by the application of a coat of
clear varnish over the entire negative, or over those
parts that are not covered with black paper. Regular
negative varnish should be used, and it is applied in justthe same manner as was described for the application of
ground glass substitute.
NEGATIVE VAEXISH
There are several kinds of negative varnish. Someare applied to the negative cold, while for the applica-
tion of others it is necessary to heat the negative. Ofcourse the cold varnish is the only kind that should be
used for films, though either kind can be used for glass
plates.
SOFTENING EDGES
Sometimes a photographer is called upon to block out
the background in a portrait or figure study and this
has to be done in a slightly different way. If opaquewere used with a brush or pen, the edges would be too
hard and clear cut. To get a softer edge and make the
outlines of the figure blend a little more gradually into
the background, use a soft retouching pencil and work
in the outline with that. When you have gone all around
the figure with the soft pencil, you can extend the line
to a width of about half an inch or so with a brush and
, opaque. A flat brush, such as is used by showcard
writers, is best to use for this purpose.
76 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
Another way of softening the edges and outlines
would be to do the opaquing on the back of the negative
instead of on the emulsion side.
In applying opaque with a brush, do not have the
brush too wet so that the opaque is too thin to make a
light-tight coating on the film. Have it just moist
enough so that it can be applied easily with one stroke
of the brush.
ETCHING AWAY THE BACKGROUND
Occasionally it happens that it is necessary to make
the background black in the print instead of white and
in order to do this, anything that shows in the back-
ground must be etched off the negative.
There are two ways of doing this. Either the knife
or razor blade is used in the way that has already been
described and the background is gently and carefully
etched down until it is sufficiently transparent to print
out dark in the print, or the emulsion is removed en-
tirely from the plate, leaving just the bare glass.
Although this latter method is seldom used at the
present time, it is necessary for a retoucher to be familiar
with it. The negative must be perfectly dry. If the
weather is at all damp, it would be a good plan to drythe negative thoroughly over the radiator or near a
fire before you begin to work on it. Then put the nega-tive on the retouching desk or the glass topped table and
with a sharp-pointed knife trace around the edge of the
image as closely as possible, making a clean cut right
through the emulsion, down to the glass.
Now take the negative and dip it in water, just for
a second or two. Blot it off and put it back on the desk.
Take the knife and, starting about an eighth of an inch
FILLING IN SCRATCHES ON THE NEGATIVE 77
outside the original cut, with a slanting stroke, run the
knife through the emulsion to meet the first cut, so
that you can peel off the emulsion all around the out-
line.
When you have cut the emulsion, soak the negative
again in water. Then, starting at one corner, rub yourthumb over the film so that the emulsion will workloose from its support and you can roll the emulsion
right off the negative down to the part that has been
removed with the knife. Be very careful not to scratch
or damage the part you want to print.
Wash off any small particles of emulsion so that the
background is clean and transparent and then set the
negative up to dry. This will give you a negative with
a clear, transparent background that will print out black
in the print. You must be very careful in making the
first cut around the outline, as it is difficult to correct
any errors.
If you do not want the outline to be quite so sharp and
clean-cut, you can etch or shave down the edges instead
of cutting right through, so that the outlines will blend
into the background more gradually.A black background like this is not used as often as
a white one. Pictures that are so treated are, as a rule,
photographs of commercial subjects and are therefore,
usually, pictures from which reproductions are to be
made for advertising or other purposes. For repro-duction purposes a white background is generally better
adapted than a black one.
FILLING IN SCBATCHES ON THE NEGATIVE
There is one thing you will find you can do very easily
after you have gained some experience in the use of the
78 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
pencil and the etching knife, and that is the retouchingof scratches or slight abrasions on the negative. If youhave tried to fill in a scratch with the pencil so that it
will match and will blend into its surroundings, you will
have discovered that it is a difficult thing to do, as it is
almost impossible to get the lead on evenly.
The best thing to do in such cases is to etch the
scratch with the point of the knife and shave down the
edges of it until they are smooth. Then you will find
that it is an easy matter to fill in the scratch with the
pencil so that it will hardly show.
RETOUCHING PHOTOGBAPHS OF ANIMALS
Photographers are very often called upon to take pic-
tures of favourite animals, such as horses, dogs, cats,
birds, and in one respect they are all alike they moveat inopportune moments so that the retoucher is
called upon to restore ears that have been laid back,
paws that have changed their position, tails that have
been wagged, etc. The modern, ultra-rapid plates andfilms and the very fast lenses that are now obtainable
have mitigated these movements to a great extent, but
still they occur, in the studio at least, and according to
the nature of the lighting.
Pedigreed animals often have to be photographedindoors, either in their own stables or kennels or in the
show pens, while they are on show, and very often the
light that is available is not of the best. The owners of
highly bred and very nervous animals sometimes objectto the use of flashlight, as it is liable to startle the ani-
mals.
Sometimes we have negatives of dogs with two tails.
In such cases, select the better one and with the knife
RETOUCHING PHOTOGRAPHS OF ANIMALS 79
or abrasive paste remove the lights on the other and
with the lead pencil fill in the shadows ; the same with
horses with four ears. Such phenomena would doubt-
less be very interesting to the naturalist, but the owner
of the animal would perhaps fail to recognize such a
photograph as a good likeness of his property.
Xegatives of dogs with long hair sometimes cause
trouble. When the hair is dark-coloured, black or red-
dish-brown, care must be taken to avoid underexposure.
If we have a negative of a collie, a retriever or any animal
with dark-coloured, long and shaggy hair, and the animal
has moved a little, it is comparatively easy to sharpen
up the negative with a few judicious touches, but when
it is a smooth-coated animal, a horse or a smooth-coated
dog, there is very little that can be done, though some-
times such a negative can be improved by etching awaythe double outlines and filling in with pencil. Some-
times a horse flicks the tail and appears to be tailless in
the picture. A clever retoucher can sometimes restore
the tail. The shape of the tail in its normal position hav-
ing been ascertained, preferably from personal observa-
tion, and a rough sketch having been made of it, the
retoucher can often introduce a tail by the aid of the
etching knife, with highlights- added where necessary
with a soft lead pencil.
It often happens that people owning valuable or fa-
vourite animals like to be photographed with them, and
you pose the owner, with the dog (let us suppose it is a
Newfoundland or a collie or a black retriever) sitting
down by the side or in front. Well, the owner's face is
very white compared with the colour of the dog, so that
either the dog is underexposed or the owner's face gets
exposed too much. The photographer must do the best
80 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
he can with the negative in the darkroom and then the
retoucher can flow ground-glass substitute over the back
of the negative, scraping it off over those parts that are
too dense and working over parts that are too thin until
an even and properly graded print can be made from the
negative.
Dogs, horses, etc., often have to be on a leash or held
by the reins and some photographers will have the tail
held at the right pose with the aid of string. All such
things, where they show in the print, have to be removedfrom the negative. Those parts that are dense in the
negative must be carefully etched down with the knife or
razor blade and then any retouching should be done
where it is needed with the pencil, after applying re-
touching dope to the negative in the usual way. If such
work is carefully done, there will be no trace of the leash
or reins in the print. If a lot of pencil work is needed,more than the film will take, the negative must be double
worked by retouching on both sides, as described on
pages 30 and 71.
Unsightly bumps or ugly lines in horses, dogs or other
animals can be improved by knifing or lead pencilling,
according to the requirements of the part and subject.Sometimes a sitter may be so posed that the hand inter-
feres with the outline of a dog or cat sitting on the own-er's lap, and quite ruins the picture. In such cases the
hand should be removed entirely if it can be done in such
a way as to suggest that the hand is behind the animal
or is covered with draperies. The same skill and light-ness of touch that are required in the use of the penciland knife for portrait work are also essential in treatingsuch defects as have been enumerated, for unless such
work is done carefully and in such a way that it will not
ETCHING A SINGLE FIGURE FROM A GROUP 81
be apparent in the print, the result will be worse than the
defects that it professes to correct, and it would be better
not to touch the negative at all.
ETCHING A SINGLE FIGUHE FHOM A GROUP
There is one thing that a photographer is very often
called upon to do and that is the separating of a single
figure from a group. Sometimes it is an old daguerreo-
type or ambrotype and sometimes a recent print on
D. O. P. Usually the first step is to make as good a
negative as possible by copying, and if the single figure
is to be enlarged, it is usually as well to make the single
figure a little larger in making the copy. Sometimes a
lot of skilful work is called for in separating a figure
from the other members of a group.In Plate XIV we show the result of copying a single
figure from a group made from a badly marred ambro-
type. Fig. 1 is a reproduction from the original, Fig. 2
shows the first stage of the work, Fig. 3 illustrates the
second stage of the work, while Fig. 4 reproduces the
completed portrait.
In beginning to do such work as this, the first thing
to do is to remove the surrounding objects from around
the head and shoulders. In the case illustrated the first
thing that was done was the separating of the child's
head from the mother's shoulder and giving a natural
outline to the waist and shoulders. This was done byfirst outlining the shoulders with the point of the etching
knife and then gently etching away part of the child's
face. Then the entire background was blocked out care-
fully with opaque in the manner described on another
page. In a case of this sort it is better to outline the
subject first of all with a soft pencil to prevent the out-
82 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
line from being too hard, then the rest of the negative
can be painted over with opaque or can be covered with
black paper. If a film is used instead of a glass plate,
the blocking out may be done on the film side instead
of on the emulsion and this will tend to make the outline
a little softer.
The merging of the lower part of the figure into the
background is done by vignetting. An opening is cut
in a piece of cardboard the shape of the image on the
negative. The edges of the opening are cut like the
teeth of a saw in order to blend and soften the junctionand make the figure blend gradually into the backgroundwithout any hard outline. The cardboard is then at-
tached to the printing frame and the opening is covered
with a piece of tracing paper to diffuse the light. An-other way to diffuse the outline is to have the cardboard
vignette separated from the negative about half an inch
or so by nailing strips of wood to the printing frame
if the sides are not already high enough, and then put-
ting a little absorbent cotton under the vignetter, be-
tween the card and the glass in the printing frame, pull-
ing out the cotton in such a way as to permit the light
to filter through it and give a gradual blend to the
printing.
Of course any retouching that is needed can be done
on the negative in the usual way, but it must be done
carefully and in such a way that the likeness is not
changed. After the print is finished and has been
washed and dried, the edges may need to be softened
a little by working on the print with a stump or a tuft of
cotton dipped in a little crayon sauce. The clouded
effect in the background is obtained in that way. This
requires only a very little crayon and care must be taken
STRAIGHTENING CROSSED EYES 83
not to put on too much. This rubbing in of the crayon
sauce, softening the lines and slightly clouding the
background, completes the picture, as will be seen in
Fig. 4.
STRAIGHTENING CROSSED EYES
Of the corrections that have to be made to eyes in a
portrait possibly the most frequent is the straightening
of crossed eyes. There is a lot that can be done in the
making of the negative to assist the retoucher and save
a considerable amount of work if a little care is taken
in the posing and the selection of the point of view.
It is often possible to photograph such a subject in
profile so that only one eye is shown and there is usually
one eye that is better than the other. However, if both
eyes are to be shown in the picture, one secret of success
is to get the straight eye perfectly natural, paying no
attention whatever to the other one. If both eyes are
crossed, turned in or out, as the case may be, then wemust endeavour to get the best position possible for one
of them before making the exposure. The most diffi-
cult eyes to straighten when making the negative are
those where one eye turns in and the other out, for in
such cases it is really difficult to obtain a normal condi-
tion of either eye. All one can hope to do is to make the
exposure when either eye is at its best and do all the cor-
recting on the negative afterwards.
If one eye is normal and the other needs straighten-
ing, first make a tracing of the good eye on a piece of
tracing paper and place it on the glass side of the nega-
tive over the defective eye. Of course the drawing must
be inverted and has to be attached to the negative with
the drawing next to the glass. In Plate XV we present
84 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
a case of crossed eyes. Fig. 1 of this illustration shows
exactly the appearance of the eyes before altering, Fig. 2
shows the first stage of the work done, and Fig. 3 pre-sents the eyes both balanced and which appear verynatural.
In beginning the work we first obtain, as said above,
a penciled outline of the normal eye on a piece of trac-
ing paper, working from the glass side of the negative.With this obtained, we invert the outline and place it
over the opening of the defective eye, attaching the
paper to the negative temporarily with a little paste if it
is a glass plate or with paper clips if it is a cut film.
Then, turning the negative over, with the film side up-wards, we trace the outline of the iris of the eye with the
point of the etching knife. This completes the first
stage, as will be seen in Fig. 2.
We next rub down the white of the eye with reducing
paste. This not only reduces the strong whites, but also
blends the outlining done with the etching knife. Thenwe pencil the black portions of the original iris and pu-pil, building up the white of the eye in the left hand cor-
ner. As a considerable amount of work is required to
eliminate the heavy black shadows, a very soft lead
should be used. When this has been completed, we next
proceed to work in the iris of the eye. This is done with
the etching knife, shaving the entire opening in the out-
line of the iris except a small speck to be left to supplythe catch-light. With the iris reduced to the properstage and the catch-light rightly located, we then pro-ceed to etch the pupil of the eye which, in this case, the
eyes being very black, should be carried only one shade
deeper than the iris. With this done, the eye is com-
pleted, as will be seen in Fig. 3.
CHEMICAL ETCHING 85
CHEMICAL ETCHING
In the last few years a new technique in the use of
chemicals to reduce the image density has been intro-
duced. One of these is the Etchadine method which
is based on the use of an oil solution of iodine which
attacks the silver image to form silver iodide. Themethod may be used on a print (on paper) or on the neg-
ative film.
The products needed for this etching process are the
Etchadine Control Medium, Etchadine Blendoil and
Etchadine Thinner. Spread the control medium evenly
on the surface of the print or negative that is to be etched.
Keep the medium spread around evenly with a wad of
cotton for not less than one minute. Then wipe up the
excess medium from the picture surface with the cotton
and squeeze the excess medium out of the cotton, letting
it run back on to the picture surface. Continue alter-
nately squeezing the cotton and mopping up the picture
surface several times until the surface is free of the ge-
latinous precipitate which will gather in the cotton, caus-
ing it to feel slick.
Thin some blendoil in a separate dish with a few drops
of thinner from one to ten drops of thinner to each
drop of blendoil. Mix thoroughly with a brush and then
apply the mixture to the part of the picture that is to be
etched. The application of the blendoil should be timed
by counting; the longer the count, the greater the depth
of removal of the image will be. The etching action is
stopped by rubbing the area quickly but lightly for a
few seconds with the same tuft of cotton which still con-
tains some of the control medium.
When the etching is finished, the print or negative
86 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
should be rinsed in water and then fixed for from three
to ten minutes in a fresh, plain hypo bath made up in the
proportion of one ounce of hypo to four ounces of water.
The negative or print is then washed and dried in the
usual way.The complete removal of a background may be accom-
plished by using full strength or nearly full strength
blendoil. For certain work, such as on commercial
photographs where a clean cut outline is required, line-
oil is recommended instead of blendoil as lineoil will hold
its outline better. Lineoil will penetrate more slowly but
to a greater final degree of bleaching.
For such work as this it will usually be necessary to
use a retouching desk that may be adjusted to a hori-
zontal position.
Chemical reduction with etchadine should precede
pencil work and should not be used if abrasive or knife
has already been used.
The very prevalent use of the popular miniature
camera for portraiture has made it necessary sometimes
to make an enlarged positive from the original tiny nega-
tive and then, from the positive, to make a new negative
either the same size as the enlarged positive or still fur-
ther enlarged. Instead of retouching the small original
negative, whatever retouching that is necessary may be
done both on the enlarged positive and on the final nega-
tive. There are special duplicating films available on
which it is possible to make an enlarged negative direct,
without the necessity for making a positive, but the pos-
sibility of retouching a positive transparency as well as
the larger negative may be very desirable.
PLATE I
F. Lawson-Taylor
PLATE II
F. Lawson-Taylor
PLATE III
PLATE IV
PLATE V
PLATE VI
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PLATE VII
W. B. CresswelJ
PLATE VIII
PLATE IX
PLATE X
PLATE XI
PLATE XII
May Bone
PLATE XIII
May Bone
PLATE XIV
PLATE XV
PLATE XVI
A B
The Aerograph Co., Ltd.
PART II
FINISHING AND COLOURING PHOTOGEAPHS
CHAPTER VI
Materials for Water Colour Painting Working up Enlargements
in Monochrome Powder Work Cloudy Backgrounds Vig-
netting Fixing the Powder Brush Work The Hair, Eyes5
etc . Cross Hatching Stippling The Scraper General Re-
marks.
MATERIALS FOR WATER-COLOUR, PAINTING
For colouring photographs in water colours the stu-
dent needs to exercise a little care in the selection of his
materials. As one artist may work on the same subject
in a different key from another, so he may also use, in
part at least, a different set of colours. But the follow-
ing list will be found suitable and reliable. Colours that
are very fugitive have not been included in this list.
Chinese White Lemon Yellow
Light Red Naples Yellow
Vermilion Burnt Sienna
Rose Madder Lamp Black
Alizarin Crimson Indian Red
Cadmium Emerald Green
Yellow Ochre Prussian Blue
Raw Sienna Permanent Blue
Indian Yellow Cobalt Blue
Gamboge Raw Umber
Roman Ochre Warm Sepia
All of these colours can be obtained from a dealer in art-
ists* supplies.
It will be necessary to provide oneself with a high
easel, mahlstick, several palettes of one kind or another,
104 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
sable brushes, a scraper, various rubbers, among which
is a hard typewriter eraser. All these things may be
placed on a table on the right of the easel.
Sit or stand so that the light falls on the picture from
over the left shoulder. Work in a cool light, as nearly
as possible from the north, at a window that is suffi-
ciently high and that is fitted with shades that can be
drawn either up from the bottom or down from the top.
The lower shades should be drawn up so that the light
starts at a height of about five feet or so from the floor,
provided the window is high enough to allow of this.
The strength of the light must be regulated according to
circumstances. It should not be so strong as to be daz-
zling, nor should it be too weak.
Good brushes, preferably sable, are indispensable
the writer prefers flat sable brushes. The brushes are
better to work with when they are just a little worn, but
the extreme tip of a new brush it may be only a single
hair may be cut off very carefully with a sharp knife.
A No. 12 fitch brush is useful for washes.
WOBKENG UP ENLARGEMENTS IN MONOCHEOME"Finishing
"an enlargement may mean much or lit-
tle. It may mean highly finished work, carefully stud-
ied, and necessarily requiring considerable time in its
execution;a finish of this degree is usually required in
the studios of the higher class of photographers. Asbetween what may be termed this maximum of finish
and the minimum, there are various shades or degreesthat vary
"according to the price." A minimum finish
may mean merely putting in a background, either with
powder-colour or with the air brush, and a slight, general
touching up and spotting of the enlargement.
ENLARGEMENTS IN MONOCHROME 105
The writer will assume that the aim of the student is
to do good work and to do it in the spirit and with the
feeling of an artist. It will be obvious that artistic workcan proceed only from artistic thought. Every stroke
and every touch must have its reason and be a means to
an end, not an end in itself.
Various methods may be employed in the working-upof an enlargement. Pure brush work is not now as gen-eral as it was, though it must continue to be of primeconsideration in many cases.
The colours required for monochrome finishing are
few, chiefly black and various shades of brown. For
ordinary black or grey bromides, carbons and platino-
types, lamp black is generally used. The student must
decide for himself the colours that he will use but we
may mention that for practically all shades of brown,
including any shade of sepia, or of the ordinary"photo-
graphic"colour (as in redeveloped prints on developing
out paper) and even for Bartolozzi red, it will be found
that combinations of black, burnt sienna and Indian
red, will provide, mixed in proper proportions, any tint
required to match the tone of the print. The mixingmust be done with care and nicety. For sepia tones of
great variety, lamp black and burnt sienna will be found
to suffice in most cases, but in some instances a little
Indian red may be required to be added, especially for
carbons. A little Indian red added to lamp black will
give what is known as a" warm black." Black and In-
dian red with a dash, it may be, of burnt sienna, will
produce various shades of photographic colour. For
sepia enlargements, sepia (warm or ordinary) may be
used at the worker's discretion. It may require modifi-
cation in some cases, to give the exact colour.
106 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
It is important to the artist as to everybody concerned
that all prints for finishing should be of the best possible
quality, not weak or underdeveloped, but strong and
brilliant prints, properly exposed and fully developed.Bromide enlargements, even those made by firms which,
by reason of their standing and the quality of their
work, charge higher rates than others, are nowadays so
cheap that it would seem hardly profitable to get in-
ferior prints for the sake of saving a few cents. Ofcourse the higher class of professional photographers
may be trusted not to do this; they see to it that their
artists shall have the best possible enlargements to work
upon.There are methods of working by which a weak print
may be strengthened and improved, but speaking gen-
erally, and without reference to those who make air-
brush finishing a special and almost exclusive study, wedo not advise that the quality of the enlargement, the
detail, the light and shade, should ever be sacrificed to"methods." Let the enlargement be as good as possi-
ble;the artist will still have plenty to occupy him.
It is pleasant to preach a doctrine of perfection, and
still more pleasant, though more difficult, to put it into
practice; but unhappily the artist is too often"cribbed,
cabined and confined"by the reluctance of many people
to pay a fair price for a good thing. So by force of cir-
cumstances, it comes to pass that the conscientious
artist, whose fingers may be itching to give of his best,
has sometimes to glance at the clock.
An enlargement may be finished entirely and through-out with the brush, in which case the background mustbe washed in, softened at the edges, hatched and stip-
pled until the desired effect is attained. If the face,
POWDER WORK 107
hands, or other parts are too white, they must be toned
down with soft washes of colour. But this exclusive
brush-work is so little in demand for monochrome fin-
ishing that it will be safe to assume that it is generally
expected that quicker methods will be at least conjoinedwith brush-work
;and the prices for finished work paid
by the public are based on that assumption.The writer feels that he will better meet the practical
requirements of the times by not dwelling upon brush-
work pure and simple, important as is the part which
must always be played by the sable brush.
For backgrounds, faces, draperies, etc., the air brush
and powder-colours are now used almost to the exclusion
of anything else. They are so much quicker, so clean
and smooth in hands which have become skilful. But,
though quick, they, too, as well as brush-work, thoughin a lesser degree, take time. Things at best cannot
be done with a wave of the hand. The artist working
professionally must have a thorough knowledge of these
.methods if he is not to be left behind in competition with
others. If others use the air brush, he too must have one
and must be expert in its use. It may be added"she
"
also, for the work is falling more and more into the
hands of ladies.
In working up an enlargement, choice may be madeas to the treatment of the backgrounds, faces, draperies,
etc., between the air brush and powder-colours, or the
two may be combined, each supplementing the other, and
either or both may be combined with brush-work.
POWDER WOKEPowder treatment must have its due recognition, as
it has certain advantages, both for monochrome and
108 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
colour work. It may be mentioned in passing that prac-
tice in this method is a good foundation for a proper
subsequent understanding of the use of the air brush,
as the effect of both is in many ways not dissimilar.
We will now suppose that the enlargement is fixed
on the easel and that the work begins. It may be a
large vignetted head fourteen by seventeen or largerof a lady in white or light drapery. There should
always be a guide print for reference, preferably a con-
tact print from the original negative.
First prepare the surface by rubbing it over either
with fine pumice-powder or powdered French chalk, or
Matt-Surface Powder, using a pad of absorbent cotton.
This removes possible grease marks. The loose powdershould be carefully dusted off with a soft, dry cloth. It
is only in certain cases of very obstinate"greasy
"car-
bon prints that the aid of ox-gall is required, but it is
rare to find a carbon print which will not yield to vigor-
ous rubbing over, especially if powdered French chalk
be used.
Assuming that the enlargement is a grey or black
bromide, for powder treatment Winsor and Newton's
blue-black is recommended. It is sold in bottles. It is
cooler in tone than lamp black and is as nearly as possi-
ble the tint of the ordinary grey bromide, especially
after fixing. The method of fixing powder-colour will
be explained later. This black does not require anyadmixture of a cooling tint. It must be well and
thoroughly mixed with pumice powder not too fine in
grain, but not too gritty. Plenty of pumice 'powdershould be used, especially for backgrounds and the ton-
ing down of too white faces and light draperies. Where
deeper tones are required, the proportion of pumice
VIGNETTING 109
powder would be less, as the greater the amount of that
powder employed, the lighter is the effect : so that toningdown can be done in any gradation, darker as the case
may be, or lighter almost to the point of invisibility.
The powder may be mixed in the shallow lid of a card-
board box. It should be rubbed on with a pad of somesoft material, absorbent cotton being perhaps the best
thing to use.
CLOUDY BACKGBOUNDS
In putting in a vignetted background begin over the
shoulder on either side where the tone would usually be
deeper, and then graduate upwards and outwards, soft-
ening off very carefully to the edges of the vignette as
the pad becomes decreasingly charged with powder.Then rub in the loose powder with the tip of the finger,or with more than one finger, filling in patches or dark-
ening where required. This finger work will be foundto give a grain more or less, sometimes very pleasingand resembling a stippled effect; but this will dependto a great extent on the grain of the paper that is beingworked on. Patches of loose powder may be removedor at least softened with a dry sable brush. In addition
to finger work, for large surfaces, the flat side of the
hand may be employed, but usually the fingers are
sufficient. A flat, rather large camel hair dusting brush
is a practical necessity for removing loose particles of
any description.
VIGNETTING
Great care should be taken not to spread out the
vignetting too far on either side, and to see that both
sides properly balance each other. Nor should the
110 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
vignetting go too high over the head, sometimes not
over the head at all. Backgrounds should be soft and
atmospheric, with a receding effect. There is much
scope for taste and fancy in their treatment, but not
always has the artist liberty to do what his feeling might
suggest ;there is commonly a background more or less
vignetted already in the enlargement, and that must be
taken as it is and made the best of. Fancy, and artistic
fancy be it added, sometimes runs to having no back-
ground at all, or but slightly at the base of the figure.
But fancy may also suggest wild, storm-driven clouds
encircling the head of a placid looking lady in eveningdress ! There is always scope for the imagination, but
limits must be observed.
Faces, hands, arms, grey hair, etc., as well as light
draperies, can be toned down either slightly or consider-
ably, in any degree required, by the powder method,which may also be applied in some cases to darker dra-
peries, at the discretion of the artist.
Having completed what effect can be obtained in the
manner described above, the next stage is attention to
the highlights. As the powder-colour is easily remov-
able, it will be found that small sticks of eraser, pointedat both ends, with some soft
"art-gum," a piece of white
kid and an etching knife such as that marked No. 2 in
Fig. 2, to use for final and sharper touches, will readilyclear up all the highlights over which the powder has
passed, such as the lights on the nose, lips, forehead,
grey hair, reflected lights, draperies and accessories.
The harder pointed eraser is the most useful: it should
be sharpened (with a circular movement) on a piece of
rather rough sand or glass paper. The soft eraser
should be cut across so as to form triangular pieces and
VIGNETTING 111
the sharp corners reduced by rubbing them down on
paper or cardboard.
The effect of a"clouded" background, as distin-
guished from a merely graduated one, is obtained by"picking out
"the edges of the vignette in such a man-
ner as to suggest the soft, broken edges of clouds,
though not necessarily an exact cloud effect. To get
this impression, pick out, but within limits, the edges
with soft rubber, not in a stiff, abrupt manner, but more
or less on the curve. This is, of course, as so much else,
more difficult to describe than to demonstrate. The
picked out portions should be dusted with the flat camel-
hair brush and will usually require softening more or
less. This can be done with a tuft of cotton, sometimes
with the tip of the finger or with a bit of fine muslin.
This picking out must be done with taste and judgment,otherwise it would be better not to do it at all. Whenwell done it helps to give style and atmosphere to a
background. Sharper definition of edges may be given
with the harder pointed rubber.
It will not be necessary to add that plain or solid
backgrounds may equally well be treated with powder-
colour and with erasers. This powder method is appli-
cable obviously to all descriptions of subjects, outdoor
as well as indoor; for example, clouds may be added to a
landscape picture (a piece of a kid glove is very useful
for this) and strong highlights may be toned down, such
as are often found in enlargements made from amateur
snapshots taken in strong sunlight.
In the preliminary toning down of a face that is too
white, or of other such parts of a picture, it is well to
bear in mind that when the darker portions of a portrait,
such as shadows, hair, eyes, nostrils, mouth and dark
112 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
draperies, come to be treated darkened or strength-
ened the face will be apt to appear whiter by con-
trast. This may be considered in advance.
FIXING THE POWDER
When all the powder work is completed, the next
stage before proceeding to brush-work is to"fix
"the
loose powder. There are several ways of doing this, but
it is best done either with the air brush or by steaming,or with an atomizer that sprays a liquid specially pre-
pared for the purpose. If the fixing is done by steam-
ing, a bronchitis kettle is best. It has a long spout, but if
there is a fan shaped diffuser on the tip of the spout, this
had better be taken off. An air brush is equally good for
the purpose, its fine spray of moisture being practically
the same as steam.
Steaming has the effect of so moistening the surface
of an enlargement, as well as the powder, that the latter
adheres and loses its powdery character. It also has the
effect of slightly but appreciably cooling the tone of the
powder (as has also fixing with the air brush). This
must be taken into account in the case of sepia or other
warm-toned enlargements, and a suitable allowance
made for it.
In fixing by steaming it is necessary to have sufficient
heat to make the kettle boil briskly, so that an ample vol-
ume of steam may be emitted. Hold the enlargementface downwards over the cloud of steam, but not too
near the end of the spout. Move it around with a circu-
lar motion so that the steaming is equally and evenlydiffused all over the print. Do not steam the picturetoo much. With a little experience it will be easy to tell
when the fixing is complete. A touch of the finger will
BRUSH-WORK 113
show this. Then dry the print, but do not dry it too
rapidly.
Fixing with the air brush is very much the same. Afew drops of water to which a little mucilage has been
added can be added to the water in the air brush cup.Too much mucilage would give a perceptible gloss to
the print, but a little of it tends to hasten the fixing.
The effect of fixing by these methods is to reduce the
powdery appearance: it might almost be said that the
powder-colour has now become water colour. After fix-
ing there will be no difficulty in doing additional work on
the print with a brush.
BRUSH-WOEE:
On the assumption that the enlargement is of goodquality, it may generally be taken that quite thin, trans-
parent washes of colour, mixed with a little gum arabic
solution, will suffice to give sufficient depth to shadows,
hair, draperies of the darker kind, including black cloth
or black velvet coats subject, of course, to strongerstrokes and accents that may be added afterwards.
These thin, flat washes may be carried over the shadows
of the face, eyes, hair, etc. But there must not be too
much colour and the gum water must not be too strong.In the case of three-quarters or full length portraits,
any accessories which are in a line with, or immediatelybehind the figure (such as chairs and tables) should also
have these washes, as otherwise, and obviously, theywould appear weak by contrast. This treatment will
be found to bring out the head and figure from the back-
ground which, being softly treated and free from gum,
except in certain cases at the base, will tend further to
recede and become more atmospheric.
114 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
THE HAIR, EYES, ETC.
The pupils and general details about the eyes, nose,
mouth, hair, draperies, etc., may next be attended to and
these will require a sure and careful touch in their treat-
ment. The shadows of the hair may be strengthenedwhere necessary, care being taken not to overcharge the
brush with colour, which would tend to hardness. Thin,
wiry lines in the hair should be avoided, though in somecases a little extra definition is demanded, as where the
hair in places is out of focus and therefore not quite in
keeping with the rest of the portrait. Stray bits of hair
may need to be worked out or modified and there may be
touches required here and there, but, speaking gener-
ally, the hair does not call for anything like elaboration
in monochrome finishing.
The pupils of the eyes must be sufficiently defined,
but on no account be too black and bead-like, and they
may be made in some cases especially with children
slightly larger than they appear in the photograph,as there is a tendency for them to contract a little in a
bright studio light and still more so if the picture has
been taken in a strong outdoor light. The greatestcare must be taken with the iris of the eye, with the
eyelids and the eyebrows, or false effects may easily
result. In some prints it may happen that the eyelidcatches the light too much. It should be toned downwith the brush. Care should always be taken not to do
too much to the eye lashes, as an artificial or"doll-like
"
effect may too easily be given. Speaking generally, eye-lashes should be only suggested and never clearly de-
fined. The eyebrows require care and must not be
strengthened to excess or they would become untrue in
STIPPLING 115
effect. They demand soft treatment, avoiding a
strongly marked or pencilled appearance.
CROSS-HATCHING
Cross-hatching for high class work is an importantmethod, but it is not demanded as much now as in past
years, for reasons which do not reflect on its value whenwell done, which is not too often. It is a method of
brush-work which is at once easy and difficult ; easy whendone merely mechanically, difficult when done artisti-
cally and with feeling. For backgrounds it must be
soft and free : it is not pleasing in hard, stiff lines. It
should be done with a brush sufficiently large and some-
what worn at the point. It can be softened in parts with
a pointed eraser. Soft, broad cross-hatching in back-
grounds may conduce to an added effect of atmosphere.It is good for faces and draperies, but it must be put
strictly in its right place.
STIPPLING
Stippling with the sable brush must always compelconsideration, though there are now aids to it and substi-
tutes for it that in past days were unknown. It is a com-
bination of soft stippling touches and hatching, and ap-
plies not only to the face and hands, but more or less to
other parts, such as patchy draperies and backgrounds,
and sometimes a little to the hair. In rough copy en-
largements from old, small, faded photographs, there is
generally enough of it required to make the most ardent
stippler happy for a great part of his working day.
Stippling gives the final effect of softness and finish.
But it must be done only where artistic feeling sug-
gests. Too small a brush should not be used for the
116 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
general stippled effect, though, of course, a smaller one
would be necessary for little spots and retouching marks.
If there are many of the latter, it may be well to clear at
least some of them away with a retouching pencil, a
black chalk crayon such as is specially made for use in
working up enlargements and has no gloss. The pencilmust be finely pointed. Such a pencil will be found veryuseful for spotting black and white prints of all kinds,
either contact prints or enlargements.In stippling the brush should on no account be over-
charged with colour, which should generally be thin and
transparent. The colour should not be too wet, but yet
sufficiently so to hold the hairs of the brush well to-
gether. Artists naturally vary in their touch and some-
thing must be left to individual feeling or tendency.
Speaking generally, one would stipple a face accordingto the suggestions it offers in the print as to grain and
texture, filling in the interstices and patches and"smoothing up
"generally.
It is necessary in stippling to sit or stand well backfrom the easel, so that the light and shade, the
"hills and
valleys"of the face, may be seen in due perspective and
be the better appreciated. The eye will the more readily
perceive where the work is needed. No one part of the
face should be fully stippled before proceeding to other
parts. If done too near, the effect of the stippling will
appear uneven when seen at a proper distance, which
may be greater or less, according to circumstances, but
often at a near approach to an arm's length. It wouldnot generally be done with the extreme tip of the brush,but with a more or less flattened point, so as to get the
touch soft, diffused and open, with an eye all the time
on the general contour of the face, as well as all detail.
GENERAL REMARKS 117
It may be borne in mind that in many enlargementsfrom negatives which have been well retouched, there is
not a little stippled grain with which the brush stipplingwill merge. The general effect when finished would
still be that of brush stippling. The scraper may also
in some cases largely contribute to the stippled effect.
THE SCRAPER
The scraper is so important that it may be said to be
practically indispensable. The writer uses the No. 2
knife, as shown in Plate V, and finds it very satisfac-
tory. It must be kept carefully sharpened at the point,
using a smooth oilstone.
Surfaces, especially those of bromide papers, varyand some take more kindly to knife work than do others.
Given a surface which is responsive or even moderately
so, the scraper will remove or clear up dark spots or
patches about a face, whether of colour or such as may be
in the original print. It can be used on backgroundsand other parts and for the sharpening of highlights and
reflected lights. It must be used patiently but with a
light hand, not digging into but deftly and lightly shav-
ing the surface, in just the same way as a knife is used
on a negative.
GENERAL REMARKS
It does not enter into the scope of this book to give
pre-eminence to any one method of working, but rather
to indicate the different methods which may be of prac-tical service to an artist who has to meet the varied re-
quirements of up-to-date photographic studios. There
is no thought here of discouraging brush-work. Butwhat practically results in most cases is that various
118 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
methods are worked in one with another, each for what
it is worth in any given case, whether in monochrome or
colour.
There are some enlargements that lend themselves
easily and invitingly to air brush treatment ; prints that
are of a rather chalky nature with strong shadows and
clear highlights. The scraper, pointed erasers and oc-
casional touches with crayon pencil or brush all would
combine with the air brush work. The air brush has be^
come a practical necessity to most, if not all, professional
workers.
In working up rough copies with a coarse"copy
"
grain, say, from an old, faded photograph, there are
cases where something appreciable must be done to clear
the way by the use of powder-colour over the draperyand background especially, as it tends more or less to
cover the rough marks and patches: the same remark
would apply to the use of the air brush. General brush-
work and spotting would then follow. But there are
some cases of copy enlargements where neither powder-colour nor air brush will help much, if at all.
In working up copy enlargements, the artist should
always have, if possible, the original photograph from
which the enlargement has been made, as a guide, for"keeping the likeness
"in such cases is of paramount
importance.When an enlargement is made from a weak original,
perhaps out of focus, with little, if any, clear definition
of the eyes and other features, but still with the sugges-tion of a likeness, too much should not be attempted in
the direction of"sharpening-up," as otherwise what
likeness there is may be lost. The greatest care and
judgment are necessary in such cases and even then com-
GENERAL REMARKS 119
plete success is not always assured. Enlargements from
amateur snapshots are not uncommon in this connection.
In finishing enlargements of outdoor subjects, such as
a lady sitting in a garden, or a family group with per-
haps a background of foliage, the first consideration is to
give increased value to the head and figure, and to sub-
due any strong points of light that may appear in the
background. It may happen that such points of light
come close to the head and these at least should be sof-
tened and subdued as theymay otherwise tend to confuse
the outlines.
When an artist is engaged on a number of enlarge-
ments, it may be advisable not to go straight throughwith one before beginning another, but to finish themin stages. This gives relief to the eyes from too long
dwelling on one subject.
The subject of working up enlargements is a wide
one and these remarks could be greatly amplified. The
writer well remembers the first correspondence lessons
he gave ; he was amazed at the amount of matter there
was to write about.
In these pages he has endeavoured to be as simple and
as intelligible as possible. The methods described are
generally indispensable, but they must be well mixed
with brains; and to overdo any method, however quick
in itself, is not to save but to lose time.
Much may be learned by the study of good engrav-
ings, reproductions from paintings by eminent artists,
and generally by keeping the eyes open.
CHAPTER VII
The Use of the Air Brush Description of the Air Brush Air
Supply Position at the Easel Colours Preparing Colours
Preliminary Practice The Principle of Air Brush work A Hintas to Roundness Use of Frisket Paper Working up Portraits
Working up Landscape Pictures Cleaning the Air Brush.
THE USE OF THE AIR BRUSH
There is an instrument with which colour can be ap-plied to photographs of all kinds, in large even washes,in a comparatively short time ; with which colour can be
applied to any surface, matte or glossy paper, film or
glass, with equal facility; with which backgrounds canbe worked in, either on the negative or on the print ; withwhich beautifully and evenly graded vignettes can be
made, on the negative or on the print, with surprisingease, and with which highlights can be accentuated andbuilt up on the negative and on either side of the nega-tive. This instrument, which is now very extensivelyused in modern studios for a variety of purposes, is theair brush.
DESCRIPTION OF THE AIR BRUSH
The air brush is a mechanical tool of rather delicate
construction and before it can be used successfully its
mechanism must be thoroughly understood. The prin-ciple of the air brush is very similar to that of the sprayer.There are two valves in the air brush, so arranged that
by means of a current of compressed air a fine spray pf
DESCRIPTION OF THE AIR BRUSH 121
colour is projected upon the surface to which it is to be
applied.
One valve of the air brush is a needle valve which, when
open, allows the colour to be projected by means of a
jet of air; the other is the air valve, opened by means of
a plunger which is operated by pressure of the finger.On most of the latest models of the air brush, these twovalves are controlled by the same lever.
A downward pressure on the lever opens the air valve
and admits a current of air from the pressure tank, the
volume of air being controlled by the amount of pres-sure applied. A backward motion on the same lever
controls the needle valve and by means of this needle
valve the amount of color can be regulated. It may beeither a fine, hair line or a fairly broad spray accordingto the extent to which the valves are open.The application of this spray to the surface that is be-
ing worked on can also be varied according to the dis-
tance at which the brush is held from the surface. Inthis way a skilled air brush operator can apply colour
either in well defined lines or as an evenly diffused spray,
according to the effect to be produced.Both of the valves of the air brush can be regulated
and adjusted for fine lines or for broad spraying at the
discretion of the operator. As the needle valve has onlya very small opening, the colour must be free from gritand dirt or the tip will become clogged and the colour will
not pass through. This can be remedied by cleaning out
the tip by running warm water or alcohol through the
tip or, if that fails, by using a reamer which must be used
very carefully to avoid bending the tip.
There are several different makes of air brushes. All
of them are good and though they may vary a little in
122 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
the details of their construction, the general principlesare the same in all of them.
The air brush was invented by Charles L. Burdick of
Chicago in 1892 and was introduced into England a yearlater, where it is known as the Aerograph.
AIR SUPPLY
There are several methods that may be used in sup-
plying the air for the brush. Either an automatic pumpelectrically controlled or the liquid carbonic gas outfit
can be recommended. It is very important to have the
air pressure uniform. The amount of pressure is not so
important as long as it is even. Details and complete
working instructions accompany each machine. Whenusing the liquid carbonic gas tanks you will have to have,
in addition to the tanks, a pressure reducing gauge to
reduce the high pressure coming from the tank to a suit-
able working pressure for the brush.
From this pressure gauge the air passes through a
rubber hose into the brush where it is held until a down-ward pressure on the distributing lever allows it to pass
through the air duct and into the air cap, where it passes
through three small openings into the colour tip andthence through the valve onto the paper. The air cre-
ates a suction which draws the colour from the colour cupinto the colour inlet, thence around the needle and out
through the colour tip to the surface that is beingworked on.
POSITION AT THE EASEL
The position at the easel should be such that you cansit upright and in a comfortable position. The brushmust always be held at right angles to the work on the
COLOURS 123
easel, otherwise you will not be able to control the appli-
cation of the colour.
COLOURS
The colour to be used in an air brush must be of the
finest grade and must be absolutely free from dirt or
grit. There are several firms that prepare colours espe-
cially for use in the air brush. Such colours are readily
obtainable from any reliable firm handling artists' mate-
rials. If you are not sure of the colour, it should be
strained through fine muslin before being used in the
air brush, for a little grit in the colour might cause youa great deal of trouble.
When you are practising with the air brush and are
learning how to use it, it will be best to use lamp-black or
colour that is not waterproof so that you can use the
same photograph several times. You can wash off the
colour with water and do the work all over again,
whereas, if you were using waterproof inks you could
not wash off the colour. Therefore if you were to make
any mistakes you would have to get another print to
work on. In working up enlargements or other photo-
graphs professionally, however, it is customary to use
waterproof colours, as they are far more permanent, and
such pictures are usually hung on a wall, where fadingwill soon become evident if poor colours are used.
For colouring photographs with the air brush or for
working up enlargements in monochrome, you can use
either the specially prepared liquid colours or you can
mix the colours yourself. Permanent colours should be
purchased in pans. A number of one ounce vials will
also be needed, each one carefully labelled with the
name of the tint for which it is to be used.
124 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
PREPARING COLOURS
Remove the colour from the pan in which it comes,
break it up into small pieces, and put it into the bottle
prepared for it. Then pour about half an ounce of dis-
tilled water into the bottle with the colour.
When the colours are thoroughly dissolved, each one
must be carefully strained through a piece of fine muslin
to eliminate all grit. Place a piece of muslin over the
top of a clean bottle or other suitable receptacle and fil-
ter each colour through a separate piece of muslin. Aseach colour is filtered, rinse out its bottle and pour the
colour back into the bottle. This colour is then ready for
use after diluting to the required strength.
The colour can be diluted for use in the air brush by
putting the colour into the colour cup on the air brush
and adding water. If you use a brush to stir the colour
in the air brush colour cup, you must be sure it is one that
does not shed hairs, for these hairs would clog the brush
and cause you trouble.
Air brush artists who do work requiring the use of sev-
eral colours usually provide themselves with several
colour cups for the different colours. This saves time,
but it is not absolutely necessary, as the cup can be very
easily and quickly cleaned without removing it from the
brush.
PRELIMINARY PRACTICE
The first thing to do in learning to use the air brush
is to practise making good, even lines. Attach a sheet
of clean, white paper to the easel and draw on it, with
the air brush, a series of horizontal lines. Try to makethese lines as even as possible in width and density. This
PRELIMINARY PRACTICE 125
will teach you how to control the brush and how to start
and finish a line without there being a dot at the begin-
ning and end of the line.
The secret of success in making such lines is to start
the movement of the brush before opening the valve
and to stop the flow of colour at the end of the line before
stopping the movement of the brush. This needs some
practice and it is very important that you should acquirethis knack and that it should become almost instinctive,
otherwise it will not be possible for you to do goodwork.
The fineness of the lines is governed by the distance
the brush is held from the paper when making the lines.
The closer the tip of the brush is to the paper, the finer
the line will be. For very sharp lines the point of the
air brush may even rest on the paper if the brush is
held at a slight angle.
If work is being done on a small photograph or draw-
ing and fine, sharp lines are needed, the brush may be
set for a fine line by means of an adjustment for that
purpose which will be found on most of the popularmakes of air brushes. The instructions that come with
the instrument will explain how this may be done. Someartists use a stick or a rest for the hand while makinglines and no doubt this is useful at times, but the little
finger of the hand holding the instrument may rest on
the paper, and the other hand can also be used, if neces-
sary, to steady the air brush.
There is no doubt at all but that it is a good deal moredifficult to learn how to use the air brush for making lines
than it is to learn how to make tints and even washes of
colour, but when once the technique is mastered, it will
be found that it is possible with the air brush to get lines
126 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
of varying degrees of softness and with a quality that
no other artist's tool can give.
After having practised making good, even lines, try
to make a series of dots of an even size and density.
Then practise making circles and curved lines. In mak-
ing a circle some practice will be needed to make the
ends of the line join neatly and without showing where
they join.
When you have acquired the knack of controlling the
flow of colour so that you can begin and end a line with-
out any thickening of the colour at the beginning or end
of the line, and can make lines that are even throughouttheir entire length, then try to make an even spray,
tinting a circular or rectangular area with an even
wash of colour so that it is perfectly smooth and even.
THE PRINCIPLE or AIR BRUSH WORK
The colour leaves the point of the air brush in a gradu-
ally expanding spray or, in other words, the colour which
is in the air forms a cone with its base on the paper and
its apex at the point of the instrument. It is obvious
therefore that the farther from the paper the brush is
held the broader will be the surface covered. This, with
the fact that the amount of colour delivered through the
point of the air brush determines the depth of the tint
or line, is, broadly speaking, the whole theory of its
application.
But there are many points of consideration which
must be understood in order to make practical applica-tion of the method. For instance, the air brush does not
make a flat and even tint unless the colour is applied in
overlapping strokes. This is best explained by meansof the diagram. Let Fig. 3 represent diagrammatically,
THE PRINCIPLE OF AIR BRUSH WORK 127
in cross section, the layer of colour deposited on the paperwith a single stroke of the air brush. The colour is deeperin the centre and decreases gradually in depth and
density at both edges and so, in order to make a flat tint,
it is necessary for the strokes to overlap, as shown in
Fig. 3. This will produce a tint that is sufficiently even
in tone for all practical purposes. It is obvious from
this that in order to make a good, even tint, the artist
must make definite strokes with the air brush just as
PIG. 3
The Aerograph Co., Ltd.
FIG. 4
the water-colour painter does with his brush and the
strokes must be parallel and overlapping. It is im-
possible to get an even tint with an aimless, circular
motion, for, wherever the lines crossed, the colour would
be deeper, and a very uneven result would be secured
in that way.To practise spraying, it is a good plan to cut an
opening about three or four inches square in a piece
of stiff paper or celluloid and place it over a piece of
white paper. Then try to blow in this square with an
even wash of colour. Open the valve a little, so that youwill get a good, wide spray and, holding the brush
about six or eight inches from the paper, work with a
swinging, freearm motion across the opening, at an
angle of about forty-five degrees. Keep your finger
on the valve and control the colour so that it flows only
128 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
while the brush is in motion, shutting it off at the end of
each stroke. Apply the colour lightly at first and gradu-
ally add colour until the required depth of tint has been
obtained.
A HINT AS TO ROUNDNESS
It is not possible to get a really sharp, clean-cut edgein air brush work unless a protective mask or templateis used, and it is just because of this that it is possible
to get with the air brush the slightly diffused outline that
tends to convey an impression of solidity and roundness.
Except for special effects, it is generally advisable to
keep the outlines soft. The camera sees with only one
eye and when the picture is sharply focused, the edgesand outlines are inclined to be crisp and hard. But
people look at objects with two eyes and therefore everyrounded object presents two outlines to the spectator.
You cannot make two outlines in a portrait, but you can
give a slightly diffused outline which will go a long waytowards conveying the impression of roundness and
solidity.
That is just the reason why many pictorial photog-
raphers like to use a lens that is not fully corrected andin which there is left a slight degree of chromatic aberra-
tion. Such a lens will tend to soften outlines and edgesand will therefore give a better suggestion of roundness
and solidity. The air brush gives soft edges and this
is something that can be used to advantage by the artist.
Plate XVI shows two balls which, if the printer and
engraver do justice to the reproduction, will show this
point. A looks like a hemisphere that is rounded on its
face and flat at the back, while B looks like a sphere or
ball, round on all sides. One appears to be adhering to
USE OF FRISKET PAPER 129
the background and the other has atmosphere all around
it and has roundness and solidity. In both the shadingis practically the same and the only difference is in the
outline. In A the outline is sharp and clean-cut, while
in B the outline is diffused.
USE OE FRISKET PAPER
It is sometimes necessary to get a sharp, clean-cut
edge when working up some kinds of commercial photo-
graphs with the air brush and in order to do this a mask,
cut out of celluloid or tough paper, is held in contact
with the work. Sometimes a thin, tough paper knownas
"frisket paper
"is used to protect the parts of a
drawing or photograph that are not to be worked on or
that are to be worked on later in a different colour.
The frisket paper is usually attached to the photo-
graph or drawing with rubber cement and then the part
that is to be worked on is uncovered by cutting away the
frisket paper with a sharp pointed knife. Of course the
cutting must be done very carefully, so that the knife
does not go too deep and cut the picture. The frisket
paper is transparent and the picture under it can be seen
sufficiently clearly to serve as a guide in cutting. After
cutting and removing the paper, the rubber cement can
be easily rubbed off with the finger tips. This cement
is quite harmless and will not damage the most delicate
photograph or drawing.Commercial photographs are often worked up very
extensively by means of the air brush and masks of fris-
ket paper are used. Sometimes a piece that has been cut
out is again replaced after that part of the photographis finished, and another piece of frisket paper is cut out
and removed. In this way different parts of the picture
130 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
can be worked up in different colours or different shades
of the same colour, and clean-cut edges will be secured.
An enlargement to be worked on with the air brush
should be mounted on a good, stiff mount, preferably
by the dry mounting process, so that it will be perfectlyflat.
WORKING UP PORTRAITS
For working up a portrait with the air brush it is
rarely necessary to use frisket paper. It is not necessaryto cover the face and figure when blowing in a light
background. With a little care you can work aroundthe face without getting much colour on it. Even if a
little colour does get onto the face, it will probably not
be noticeable.
The addition of a suggestion of clouds to a plain, white
background is comparatively simple after some skill
has been acquired in the use of the air brush. Usuallyonly a very light tint is needed, but the brush must be
properly handled so that the flow of colour is properlycontrolled. The colour must be even and must be nicelyblended at the edges.
WORKING UP LANDSCAPE PICTURES
Landscape prints can often be much improved byspraying in a suggestion of clouds on a blank sky.Sometimes the foreground needs to be darkened a little
and scattered highlights toned down. Very often onlya little work is needed to improve a picture very much.In addition to working on the print, you can also
work on the negative, and on either side of the negative,whether it is film or glass. Parts that print out too darkcan be held back with a light, even wash applied on the
CLEANING THE AIR BRUSH 131
glass side of the negative which may be wiped off where
it is not needed.
CLEANING THE Am BRUSH
It is very important always to keep the air brush per-
fectly clean, otherwise it will be impossible to do goodwork. If colours are used, the brush must always be
carefully cleaned after using. Colours often contain a
little gum which becomes very hard on drying, so if
colour were allowed to dry and harden in the tip of the
air brush it would be very hard to clean it.
Cleaning should be done as follows : immediately after
using the brush and before the colour or waterproofink has had time to dry and harden, open up the valves
and then clean the colour cup thoroughly. Fill the colour
cup with clean water and run it through the brush. Dothis several times. After a thorough washing with water,
remove the needle and draw a thread of fine silk throughthe tip to clean it and to remove any adhering colour.
Flow one or two cupfuls of water through the brush
while the needle is removed. Then blow air throughthe brush till it is thoroughly dry. Then replace the
needle, being sure that it fits properly, and pass a little
more air through the brush. Then turn off the air,
disconnect the brush and replace it in its case.
An expert air brush artist should never have any diffi-
culty in finding employment, for there are many other
uses for the air brush besides in working up photographic
enlargements. The air brush is used very extensively
in show-card writing, in staining and gilding picture
frames, tinting and dyeing fabrics and feathers, in china
painting and in bookbinding. A special form of air
brush is used in finishing automobiles.
CHAPTER VIII
Colouring Enlargements in Water Colour Colour Terms Ex-
plained The Kind of Print that is Best for Colouring Brush
Washes Flesh Tints The Eyes Shadows, etc., on the Face
Colouring Hair Draperies.
COLOURING ENLARGEMENTS IN WATER COLOURS
As much in the foregoing pages dealing with mono-
chrome applies also to the methods of colouring, it will
not be necessary to repeat everything which has alreadybeen stated.
In order that colours may be used intelligently, it is
necessary for the colourist to know a little about colour
and colour combinations. There are actually onlythree primary colours, namely, red, yellow and blue.
All other colours, shades and tints are made up of one
or more of these primary colours in varying combina-
tions. When two primary colours are combined, the
result is what is known as a secondary colour. Whenyellow and blue are mixed together the result is green,and the green varies according to the proportions of
yellow and blue. It may be a yellowish green or a bluish
green. Red and yellow when combined produce orange,and red and blue make purple. Green, orange and
purple, then, are secondary colours.
When secondary colours are combined, we get terti-
ary colours. Thus, orange and purple mixed togethermake brown. Green and orange in varying proportionswill give varying shades of green olive green, bottle
green and so on. Therefore, with only a very few tubes
COLOUR TERMS EXPLAINED 133
or cakes of colour it is possible to get a wide variety and
range of colours, all that you would need for colouringa portrait or a landscape picture.The following list of colour combinations is given as
a guide in mixing some of the most frequently usedtints:
For Brick red, use brown and scarlet
Blue black deep blue and dark brownBottle green dark green and light blue
Cherry dilute brilliant red
Dark red scarlet and dark brownEmerald green light green and gold
Grey violet and light green
Grey blue violet and light green, with an ex-
cess of violet
Gold deep yellow and a little scarlet
Lavender dilute violet
Lilac dilute violet
Maroon scarlet and dilute violet
Neutral tint violet and dark brown
Olive green deep yellow and violet
Orange scarlet and deep yellow
Plum violet and dark brown
Purple scarlet and blue
Tan light brown and dilute orangeWine violet and scarlet
When the colouring is being done with transparentwater colours or aniline dyes, varying shades and tints
can be obtained by washing one colour over another
instead of mixing the two colours together before apply-
ing them.
COLOUR TERMS EXPLAINED
The term"complementary
"colour is applied to the
third primary colour that is described as being"comple-
134 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
rnentary"to a combination of the other two primaries.
Thus, red is complementary to green because green is
a combination of the other two primary colours, namely,
yellow and blue. Similarly, blue is described as being
complementary to orange, which is composed of the
two remaining primaries red and yellow. And in
the same way, yellow is complementary to purple.
The terms warm and cold are also applied to colours.
Yellow and red are known as warm colours and blue is
a cold colour, therefore orange is one of the warmest
possible colours. Green may be either a warm greenor a cold green according to whether the yellow or the
blue predominates.Certain colours harmonize well with other colours.
As a general rule, complementary colours or tints con-
taining complementary colours will harmonize. Dif-
ferent shades of the same colour usually do not gowell together. It would not look well, for instance, to
have scarlet, salmon pink and magenta all in the same
picture, though, on the other hand, varying shades of
green would probably harmonize very well.
No definite rules can be given as regards harmony of
colours. Some colours will harmonize and some will not.
The following suggestions may be useful:
Light brown will harmonize with blue or greenBrown blue or red
Flesh blue or dark greenScarlet blue or greenCarmine green or orangeRose light blue or yellowWine yellow or light green
Light green rose or blue
Olive green red or orangeDark green crimson,, magenta or orange
BRUSH WASHES 135
Gold or yellow blue or violet
Blue yellow or orangeViolet light green,or yellow
Orange violet or blue
Blue-grey buff or pinkNeutral tint red or yellow
THE KIND OF PRINT THAT is BEST FOR COLOURING
A photograph to be coloured presents one difficulty,
namely it is already a picture in monochrome that
is to say, in one colour. It will be necessary to destroy
or neutralize some of this colour. A print for colouring
should usually be a little lighter than one that is not
to be coloured, but not too light. It should not be so
light that it needs building up. If it is a portrait to be
coloured it should show every detail, so that it does
not have to be redrawn. However, this will depend to
some extent on the method of colouring that is to be
used and on the capabilities of the artist. For colour-
ing in pastel, for instance, by an artist who does not
need to rely implicitly on the photograph, but who can
build up the rather faint image and still retain the like-
ness, a very light print is preferred. But this is some-
thing more than the mere colouring of a photograph.An experienced artist learns where his strength lies and
he may be left to judge for himself what kind of print
he prefers, though often enough he has to take things
as they come and has no choice in the matter.
BRUSH WASHES
When carrying brush washes of colour over an en-
largement, it may often help the colour to flow more
freely and evenly if the surface is moistened with water.
The water can be best applied with a wad of cotton or
136 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
a small sponge and the enlargment should be held at an
angle to permit of the colour flowing gradually from the
top to the bottom. The washes should approach to full
strength, as any excess of colour, if merely in patches,
can be readily modified by a little work with rubbers,
erasers, etc.
FLESH TINTS
The wash of colour on the face should be applied
quickly, so that there is time before it is dry to put in
extra tints, such as on the cheek, one tint flowing softly
into the other, though this does not always work out
according to hope or promise. The idea is for the tints
to blend as evenly as possible without showing any sharpwater lines. Before the colour is dry, wash the brush,
squeeze it out more or less, and remove any colour that
may have gone over the eyes, eyebrows, etc., and from
just where the forehead joins the hair. This must be
done expeditiously and neatly. It may be added that
there is usually a little extra flush of colour about the
chin, the nostrils and ears.
For flesh tints no arbitrary rules can be given as to
precisely what colours to use, but it may be stated that for
most complexions a mixture of rose madder and yellowochre will suffice, especially if the face is bright and clear
in the print, with rose madder mixed with vermilion for
the cheeks and lips. These colours are quite permanent.There should be sufficient vermilion, as otherwise the
cheeks, etc., would appear too pink. On the other hand,if there be an excess of vermilion, the tendency mightbe to an unnatural or even a
"bricky
"effect. The flesh
tint should incline to coolness in the highlights. Thereis no occasion, except it may be in very rare and excep-
SHADOWS, ETC., ON FACE 137
tional cases, to use Chinese white for the lights of a
face.
THE EYES
Cobalt blue is a suitable colour for blue or blue-grey
eyes, with modifications. Pure blue eyes hardly, if at
all, exist, except in the imagination of those who are
convinced that they possess them! In such cases it maybe judicious to do at least not less than justice to
the eyes. It need hardly be pointed out that in treatingthe
"whites
"of the eyes, there is generally in children
and younger people a faint tinge, slightly inclining to
blue, which diminishes as age advances.
For brown eyes of various shades, burnt sienna comes
in usefully, again subject to modifications. Of course
the colour of the photographic basis of the print has to
be considered and allowance made accordingly.
SHADOWS, ETC., ON* FACE
For emphasizing the lines of the eyelids, nostrils, lips
and the deeper shadows of a face, burnt sienna mixed
with alizarin crimson may be recommended. For givingadditional warmth to dark shadows, orange chrome
mixed with vermilion (more or less, according to cir-
cumstances) may be used, but this should not be done
to excess or the shadows may appear too red where onlywarmth is required. Cobalt blue will give coolness about
the temples or wherever a cooling of the flesh tint is
required. In many subjects, especially old or elderly
people, there is just a suggestion of a green tint under
the eyes. The ears in many photographs"catch the
light" and are often too prominent on the lighted side.
As the ear recedes from the face it ought to be properly
138 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
modified, as its highlights are subsidiary to those of the
face ; it is, in its degree, in perspective. For the shadingof halftones a mixture of cobalt blue and raw sienna
may be suggested.For very bright and delicate complexions, and es-
pecially if the face in the print is rather dull, Naplesyellow instead of yellow ochre may be recommended.It is an opaque colour, but bright. It is good for small
tinting and miniatures. For certain dark or olive com-
plexions Roman ochre is good; raw sienna might also beused as an alternative. There are other yellows which
might be mixed with rose madder for flesh tints, butthere is a tendency in artists, the longer they live, to
worry themselves less about"other colours." They are
inclined the more to stick to those which they knowto be reliable and adequate to their purpose. But, of
course, ideas on this point the choice of colours
vary, and artists might even come to blows over it.
The ability to paint a true and natural flesh tint is
a gift of nature and it is to be feared that he who doesnot posses that gift will not greatly succeed, thoughmeretricious flesh tints are common enough and have a
success of their own. But as to gift, he will not knowuntil he has tried.
What is termed a flesh tint is in fact a combinationof many tints.
Photographic colourists rarely receive proper direc-
tions as to the colouring of enlargements and other
prints. Instructions which read: "Fair complexion,blue eyes and brown hair," are not very illuminating.The directions should be more descriptive. Far moreto the point were some instructions which the writeronce received from a photographer who was sending a
COLOURING HAIR 139
picture of a young lady to be coloured:"Hair red, com-
plexion tallowy." The artist understood.
COLOURING HAIR
In colouring hair there are so many shades, rangingfrom the palest flaxen to the darkest brown or black,
that this part of the subject can be only lightly touched
upon. There is no such thing as yellow hair, and a too
decided suggestion of yellow should be avoided. Various
colours may be used for hair, such as sepia, burnt umber,Roman ochre, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, lamp black,
etc., more or less modified and often blended. Black
with a little sepia will give the effect of very dark brownhair approaching to black. Allowance must be madefor the colour in which the photograph is printed. If it
be in brown (which is usually the best as a basis for
colouring), for dark brown hair, black almost alone
might be used. If the photograph is a grey bromide,
obviously more brown would be needed if too cold an
effect is to be avoided. The highlights on dark hair
should incline to a coolness of tone, a suggestion which
could be given with cobalt blue.
Roman ochre or yellow ochre is suitable for various
shades of"golden
"hair, with sepia, burnt sienna or
other admixtures which may be required to give the
exact colour. In some young children there is occasion-
ally a very light flaxen tint in the hair, partially ap-
proaching to white. This may be rendered with a thin
wash of yellow ochre mixed with Chinese white, modified
at discretion, the deeper shadows being treated with,
say, warm sepia and the lights brightened with Chinese
white mixed with yellow.
White or grey hair should not be tinted too coldly or
140 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
with too blue an effect, and there should be sufficient
warmth in the shadows.
DRAPERIES
The treatment of draperies is a large subject. If
the enlargement that is being worked on is of a warmcolour and the drapery is, say, black or navy blue, the
underlying tint has to be covered, subject to such slight
suggestion of warmth as may be allowed to remain in
even the darkest draperies, at least in the shadows. If
black, a mixture of lamp black, or blue black, and prus-sian blue or indigo, may be used, with a little alizarin
crimson to give a slightly purple tint a tint which
helps to reduce the brown basis. As even a wash as
possible should be secured, but not with an excess of
colour, and Chinese white mixed with lamp black should
be introduced into the lighted portions of black drapery.But if treated with the brush alone, much subsequent
hatching and working up will be necessary. The defini-
tions of draperies (as in black coats, etc.) should not
be too hard, or in too straight lines, but more or less
broken.
For pale tinted draperies, such as light blue, helio-
trope, pink, etc., some little admixture of Chinese whiteis suggested where the most delicate light tints are called
for. Certain pale blues, as in ribbons and sashes, incline
very slightly to green, in which case a little yellow maybe mixed with cobalt blue, with or without Chinese
white, as may be required.
Pinks vary in shade, some colder and others warmer.There is salmon pink, for example : rose madder mixedwith orange chrome will give this.
A cream tint, lighter or darker, can be composed of
DRAPERIES 141
yellow ochre mixed with Chinese white, with perhapsa slight dash of vermilion.
Any shade of heliotrope can be made by mixing cobalt
blue, or permanent blue, with rose madd^p or alizarin
crimson, and sometimes a little Chinese white for the
paler shades.
CHAPTER IX
Finishing Prints in Oil Colours Characteristics of Colour TheRussian Method of Applying Oil Colours The Kind of Print for
Colouring Applying the Colours Portraits Landscapes
Working up Enlargements in Black and White and Coloured Crayon.
FINISHING IN OIL COLOURS
First make a careful selection of colours, brushes, etc.
You will need several other small articles, such as pale
drying oil, turpentine, knife, eraser, etc. The samelist of colours used in water colour painting will do,
substituting flake white for Chinese white. But a much
greater variety of brushes is necessary. You should
have a few large, flat, hog-hair brushes for large sur-
faces such as plain backgrounds, etc.; smaller ones for
hair; stumpy flat ones for painting flesh; long, thin,
badger brushes for painting anything that requires a
long line; small flat sables for finishing delicate andminute parts ; large badger softener for blending colours,
and, by the way, this should be used as charily as pos-sible ; a tube of megilp ; a few rags for wiping brushes,
or wiping out any part which you have painted andwhich does not meet your approval; and a large, flat,
wooden palette, either the elliptical or the oblong shape.I prefer the former. Let it be light and pale in colour,
but not too yellow. And although the following rule is
by no means common, even amongst artists of first rate
repute, yet it would not be controverted by the verybest; and that rule is:
"Always keep your brushes and
FINISHING IN OIL COLOURS 143
your palette clean." See that after setting your palette
you do not put the caps on the wrong tubes ; clean all the
waste colour off your palette after a day's painting;wash your brushes in clean turpentine ; wipe your palette
knife; keep everything scrupulously clean; make a
habit of it and you will never regret it. The comfort of
commencing a day's work and finding everything clean
and in good order cannot be overrated.
To commence a portrait in oil, if the photograph is
printed in carbon on the canvas stretcher, first cover
it with some priming, such as a wash of very thin starch
with mucilage in it, and when it is dry, begin by setting
your palette, thus : flake white in the corner nearest yourthumb ; next, yellow ochre ; and so on, making the colours
deeper in tone as they get farther from the white.
Colours that are similar keep together, such as the reds,
the blues, the yellows, so that the deepest and most
sombre colours are the farthest to the left. Let them
go around the palette, leaving a space in the middle
for mixing. And now proceed to the first painting.The rule of laying on those colours first which are to
represent lights, as in water colour painting, is entirely
reversed when working in oil colours. The lights should
be the last consideration.
It is impossible to lay down arbitrary rules for the
composition of colour or, at least, to say that such a
combination is right and another wrong. All we can do
is to give illustrations. So we will assume that we have
to paint a portrait of an old gentleman, with white hair,
greyish white beard and moustache, slightly bald; face
strong and rich in colour, inclining to florid; the head
turned almost full towards us, with the light falling on
that side of the face that we see most of, but lighting
144 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
directly, however, a good deal of the other side. This
is a common style of portrait and one that often has to
be painted.
Commence by mixing terre verte, brown madder, a
little raw sienna and a very little light red. Let this
mixture incline to a warm grey, and with it paint in
those parts which are near the deepest markings of the
face, such as the shadow below the eyes, the edge of the
cheek by the whisker on the shaded side (and whenever
you are working over a tolerably deep shadow on the
photograph you may add a little flake white to render
the colour more opaque, and so destroy the colour of the
photograph) under the eyes. You may add a little
yellow, as the shadow there is somewhat greenish in tone.
Now mix yellow ochre, flake white and light red anda little emerald green may be added to take away the
crude intensity of the red and yellow, and with it paint
carefully those parts which are between the extreme
highlights and the greys of the middle tone. Let this
combination incline to a weak, yellowish red.
Now mix flake white, emerald green, cobalt, and the
least touch of light red and a very little burnt sienna
and with it lay in the middle tints on the forehead andnose. These may be kept cool in colour. Now mix terre
verte with burnt umber and flake white and a very little
cobalt, and with it touch the flesh just where it meetsthe hair of the whisker, moustache, and the hair at the
sides of the head; and as the subject is slightly bald, youmay carry this cool grey around the top of the head.Now mix burnt umber, rose madder, and emerald green,
making an opaque, warm colour, and with it paint broadlythe outlines of the eyes. The lips may be touched with
pure carmine; the upper lip may have a little light red
FINISHING IN OIL COLOURS 145
added to the carmine. You may now proceed to the
lights. Mix yellow ochre, flake white, and the meresttouch of light red, the whole forming a yellowish white ;
a little emerald green will not be amiss to keep it lowin colour. With a broad, flat brush paint firmly first the
lights on the forehead, next the cheek-bone, the nose,
etc. The eye we will assume to be a bluish grey, and in
painting this do not make it violet ; very few people have
eyes that colour. Antwerp blue, emerald green, andwhite will do ; and remember that what is called the white
of the eye cannot be painted with white, but must be
made a bluish grey. The pupil may be touched with
Antwerp blue and sepia. Endeavour to avoid the use
of black anywhere. Next, with a little carmine and
white, touch the inside corner of the eye and the car-
tilage of the nose.
You may now proceed to the coat, which we will as-
sume to be black. Let us consider there are only three
gradations of light and shades on it lights, halftones
and deep shadows. The halftones may be painted with
a mixture of Vandyke brown and Antwerp blue, the
whole forming a brown, not blue. The shadows can be
touched with the same colour mixed, but inclining to
blue ; a little crimson lake may be added with advantage.The lights with the same colours in combination, but
inclining to a bluish grey, so that we have the shadows
and lights cool, and the middle tones warm. The middle
tones will occupy a much greater space than both lights
and shadows ; and I may here say a word about the han-
dling of the brush in draperies. If you are painting a
heavy fold either in a curtain, a garment, or any woven
material, let the direction of the stroke made by yourbrush be nearly at right angles with the fold, never down
146 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
its length; and in painting the halftones, do not let your
colour go over the surface to be occupied by the lights ;
leave a space for them. All painting in oil should be
mosaic, each touch occupying its own space and goingno farther. M. Legros used to demonstrate the value
of this system by painting portraits, using only the
palette knife with which to lay on the colours, and the
effect produced was magnificent. All the great por-
trait painters adopt the principle. The portrait of
Thomas Carlyle by G. F. Watts, R.A., is a splendid
example.
Having got so far, you may next rub in the back-
ground, which may consist of terre verte and sepia, in-
clining either to the green or to the brown. If you want
to break it up at all, let that part you make darkest be on
that side of the head which is in shadow, not close up to
the head, but as if it were the shadow of the head thrown
upon a wall at a little distance. Do not, for the sake of
effect, paint your background darkest on the light side
of the head, and lightest on the dark side. You will
certainly get contrast, but it will be horribly vulgar.
You may paint in the necktie, if it is visible, and collar,
putting the shadows of the collar a warm grey, inclining
to yellow. This will do for the first painting, which
must be allowed to get quite dry before proceeding anyfurther. When it is dry, which will be in two or three
days if you have used much drying oil and longer if youhave not, first sponge the painting with clean, cold water
until the water will almost stand on it; dry it carefully
with a clean cloth, and if there are any pieces of colour
obtrusively prominent, they may be removed with the
eraser.
You may now proceed to finish. You may strengthen
CHARACTERISTICS OF COLOUR 147
the colour on the cheeks by scumbling over it with a brush
sparingly charged with the same colour as at first, but
yellower or redder as your taste dictates. The greys
of the face should be done next and here great care is
necessary, so that they do not degenerate into dirt in-
stead of shadows. The nose and forehead may be rubbed
over with thin washes almost of light red, pink, madder
and yellow ochre, very thin. The hair may be glazed
with grey, inclining to yellow. The eyes may be touched
up and lightened wherever they seem to need it. All
shadows may be strengthened and remember the second
painting is only to strengthen and correct the first. Andnow touch up the lights, strengthening them wherever
they seem to need it, and do not use the softener in finish-
ing a head; it may be used slightly in connecting the
touches in the first painting, especially on the large
surfaces, but not afterwards.
Glaze the coat with crimson lake, Antwerp blue and
raw sienna, inclining to warm purple. Touch up the
lights in a strong, brushy style and strengthen the back-
ground, making it deeper or lighter as you think fit. Donot let the outline of any part, either on the face or
figure, be a hard, sharp line. Some photographers like
it so, but it is utterly false in art and anyone with the
slightest knowledge of the scientific laws of light and
our physical powers of appreciating them, may demon-
strate it for his own satisfaction if he wishes to.
CHARACTERISTICS or COLOUR
I may here mention a few of the characteristics of
colour which may possibly be new to some amateurs.
The reason that some of the old time chromo-lithographs
appeared so cheap and tawdry is not that the printers
148 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
did not know how to print them any better, but because
they actually were cheap. The colours were crude and
raw without any complementary colours to act as a foil.
A cloak or dress of any black material will have two,at least, distinct colours in its composition. Generallymore if the lights are warm, the halftones may be ex-
pected cool, and the reverse. Black hair will often have
the lights blue, in which case the halftones will be warm.I have seen a green robe painted with the lights a dis-
tinct light red, like the russet on a green apple. I have
seen purple robes with the lights a decided orange, andso on ; and this is correct in art. Of course it must not
be taken too literally. All pigmentary colours have a
very large amount of grey in them; but the only condi-
tion under which any object is quite colourless is whenit is in total darkness when all things are colourless.
When anything is in the light, it takes to itself reflections
from surrounding objects, which fact contains one of
the elementary principles of harmony of colour.
THE RUSSIAN METHOD OF APPLYING OIL COLOURS
The method just described of applying oil paint with
brushes to a carbon print on canvas is, without doubt, the
most satisfactory method and the result when the
work has been done by a skilled and experienced artist
is most attractive. Modern craze for greater speed in
production and lower prices have made it necessary to
develop newer methods that are better adapted to meet-
ing those demands and so there is a method of colouring
photographic prints with oil colours by rubbing on the
colours with a wad of cotton, a method that is very satis-
factory and, at the same time, rapid and comparativelyeasy. There are complete sets on the market containing
APPLYING OIL COLOURS 149
all that is needed, put up in convenient boxes at a veryreasonable price. Either Marshall's Transparent Oil
Photo Colours or Roehrig's Photo Oil Colours can be
strongly recommended. These sets include fifteen
colours put up in tubes, the colours being: Flesh, Cheek,
Lip , Carmine, Cadmium Yellow, Raw Sienna, Tree
Green, Oxide Green, Blue, Cobalt Violet, Sepia, Ve-
rona Brown, Viridium, Cadmium Orange and Neutral
Tint. There is also in the box a tube of medium, a bottle
of dull finish varnish, a package of cotton, paper stumpsand complete instructions for working. If you wish,
you can buy the tubes of colours separately and there
is a selection of about forty colours to choose from.
You can use a regular painter's palette on which to
mix the colours, or you can use a piece of glass or opal,
and in addition to this you will need one or two erasers
hard and soft and a few small brushes for fine de-
tail work.
Many people make stumps by covering the end of
little wooden sticks with cotton and they use these for
applying the colours, using a different one for each
colour. You can use meat sticks or skewers the little
wooden sticks that are used by butchers for rolled roasts
and can apply the cotton very quickly and easily by
taking a small wad of cotton in the left hand, laying the
pointed end of the stick on the cotton and twisting the
stick so that the cotton is wound tightly and evenly
around the end of the stick. A number of these cotton
stumps may be prepared beforehand so that there will
be plenty of them available while you are working.
The medium that comes with the regular set of colours
should be mixed with turpentine. Only the best quality
turpentine should be used. You will find in the direc-
150 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
tion sheet full details as to how much turpentine should
be used to dilute the medium.
THE KIND OF PRINT FOR COLOURING
Any good print on practically any kind of paper maybe coloured with oil colours, and as the colours are trans-
parent and are applied in thin washes, the shadows andother details in the print will show through the colour.
Therefore the print must be a good one, with good gra-dations and detail both in the shadows and in the high-
lights. Either a black and white or a sepia print will
be suitable for colouring. If warm colours are to be
used reds, browns or orange the sepia print will
add depth and richness, but for a picture to be coloured
with cooler colours, such as a snow scene, for example,a black and white print would be more suitable.
Unlike the method of colouring that has been de-
scribed, in which the colours are applied with a brush,the colours used in the Russian method do not cover upand obliterate the photographic image. The photo-
graph is tinted rather than painted, and yet there is a
richness and depth to the colour that is very pleasing.The print to be coloured may be of any size, but the
method is best adapted to prints that are not too small,
preferably eight by ten or larger. When a little experi-ence has been gained in applying the colours, it will befound that even larger prints than eight by ten can be
coloured evenly and fairly quickly with comparativelylittle trouble.
When you have selected the print that you want to
colour and have decided what colours you want to use,
you can proceed to set your palette. Along the upperedge of the palette or the sheet of glass squeeze out from
APPLYING THE COLOURS 151
the colour tubes just a very little of each of the colours
you expect to use. Of course the colours may be mixedand blended, either on the palette or by applying one
colour over another.
APPLYING THE COLOURS
Before applying colour to the print, you must pre-
pare the print by rubbing a little medium over the en-
tire surface. Take a wad of cotton and dip it in the
medium that has been diluted with turpentine accordingto the instructions, and then rub it over the entire print.
Wait a few minutes and then take a piece of clean, lint-
less cotton cloth and rub off the surplus medium, rubbingthe print down till it appears to be dry. Now the printis ready for the colour and the way the colour is appliedis as follows: Take one of the stumps that you have
prepared by wrapping cotton around the end of meat
sticks, dip it in the colour that you want and rub a little
colour more or less roughly over the part where that
colour is to be applied. Then, with a clean cotton stumprub over this rough application of colour and even it up.When you have done this once, you will see how it may be
done and you will realize how simple and easy this
method of colouring really is. You do not need to be
very careful about keeping the colour within the bound-
aries where it is to be, for any colour that overlapsonto a part where it ought not to be can very easily be
rubbed off with a wad of clean cotton, or if that does not
remove it completely, just a touch of medium appliedwith the cotton will remove the colour.
Colours can be blended, just like transparent water
colours, by applying one colour over another. Thecolours are transparent, so that the shading and detail
152 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
in the photograph show through, giving shadow and
halftones to the picture. You can deepen the shadows
a little if that is necessary, but you do not have to work
them up entirely with colour.
PORTRAITS
In colouring portraits, try to get a good flesh tint.
For light complexions sometimes a touch of yellow maybe added to the regular flesh tint to make it a little
lighter. The colour on the cheeks is added after the flesh
tints have been applied to the face. Eyes and other
details will have to be coloured with a brush.
LANDSCAPES
Landscape pictures can be coloured very quickly and
effectively by this method. As a rule, the sky should be
coloured first, and the colour can be rubbed all over the
sky portion of the picture. Then, if there are any clouds,
the colour can be taken off the clouds, leaving them white.
If there is water in which the sky is reflected this should
be coloured next. Then the green in grass and foliageand other colours for tree trunks, fences, houses, etc.
Small items like flowers in the foreground should be putin with a brush.
If you do not care to use the photo oil colours that
are put up in sets, you can use regular oil paints suchas artists use. Those manufactured by Winsor and New-ton, or Devoe or any other good maker will be found to
be entirely satisfactory. The megilp that artists use is
about the same as the medium that is supplied with theoil colour sets and can be used instead of the regularmedium. After the paint is thoroughly dry, another ap-plication of megilp or medium will impart a little more
WORKING UP ENLARGEMENTS 153
brilliancy to the colours. Some colourists use the Ne-
pera Waxing Solution, a preparation manufactured byEastman Kodak Company for bringing out detail and
adding a luster to photographic prints.
WORKING UP ENLARGEMENTS IN BLACK AND WHITEAND COLOURED CRAYONS
Enlargements for this treatment should be on papermore or less rough, according to size, and especially ac-
cording to the size of the head. Conte pencils, both
black and white, A. W. Faber "Castell
"Polychromos
Pencils and other varieties may be used. It is not neces-
sary to confine oneself to black and white and sepia, for
crayons can be obtained in all colours and the enlarge-ment may be worked up in any colour or in several
colours.
The background may be rubbed in with powderedcrayon, white faces modified and the highlights picked
out, as previously described. Sometimes the head alone
is printed and the bust or figure left to be drawn in with
crayon. The stump and the fingers all play their part
in such work as this which admits of considerable indi-
viduality in treatment. The pencils, as a rule, should
be used in a free and sketchy manner. Some free and
decided, but not too hard, hatching and cross hatchingwill help to give artistic effect to the background. Cer-
tain unobtrusive touches with the brush, where required,
will help without affecting the general impression of"crayon
"work; the same may be said of the air brush,
which may also be used in conjunction with pencil
and brush.
Some experience of crayon drawing would be an ante-
cedent condition of good work of this kind. In a still
154 THE ART OF RETOUCHING
larger degree this remark would apply to coloured
crayon work which, as a rule, would be practically im-
possible, as would good work in oils, without a prepara-
tory art training. Artists who have had such a train-
ing should not have much difficulty in doing work on
a basis wholly or in part photographic.Whether they work on a photographic print or en-
largement that is dark or light in the printing is a mat-
ter that must be left to their discretion and to the method
that is used in the working up or colouring. When the
photographic print is to be coloured with transparentwater colours or aniline dyes, or with oil colours applied
by the Russian method of rubbing on the colour with a
wad of cotton, a fully printed photograph is needed, so
that the details and gradations will show properly
through the colour, but for working up with crayon or
with oil paint applied with a brush, a light print may be
used and the details and gradations put in with the
crayon or paint. The lighter the print, the more the
artist will have to create and the more will his ability be
put to the test to preserve the likeness and the character
of the subject, as they are insistently required to be pre-served from the photographic standpoint.